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DPA
Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia’s communications and multimedia minister said on Sunday that he will ask officials not to “act against” a journalist facing police action for an article reporting on the arrests of hundreds of migrant workers.
“I may not like ur piece but I will defend ur right to write it,” wrote Saifuddin Abdullah, responding on Twitter to a post by journalist Tashny Sukumaran - in which she said she has been summoned for questioning about a Friday report in the South China Morning Post, a Hong Kong newspaper.
On Sunday, which is World Press Freedom Day, Saifuddin said he is “looking into” a telecommunications law under which the journalist will be questioned and which non-governmental mouthpiece Reporters Without Borders brands part of “a draconian arsenal” of codes undermining media freedom.
A group of 586 undocumented foreign workers were rounded up by police on Friday during an operation to test around 3,000 migrants for COVID-19.
The government defended the raid, but on Sunday the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia said it was “appalled.”
More than 23,000 people have been arrested for alleged breaches of a strictly policed coronavirus lockdown imposed on March 18.
Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia’s communications and multimedia minister said on Sunday that he will ask officials not to “act against” a journalist facing police action for an article reporting on the arrests of hundreds of migrant workers.
“I may not like ur piece but I will defend ur right to write it,” wrote Saifuddin Abdullah, responding on Twitter to a post by journalist Tashny Sukumaran - in which she said she has been summoned for questioning about a Friday report in the South China Morning Post, a Hong Kong newspaper.
On Sunday, which is World Press Freedom Day, Saifuddin said he is “looking into” a telecommunications law under which the journalist will be questioned and which non-governmental mouthpiece Reporters Without Borders brands part of “a draconian arsenal” of codes undermining media freedom.
A group of 586 undocumented foreign workers were rounded up by police on Friday during an operation to test around 3,000 migrants for COVID-19.
The government defended the raid, but on Sunday the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia said it was “appalled.”
More than 23,000 people have been arrested for alleged breaches of a strictly policed coronavirus lockdown imposed on March 18.
