Agencies/Kuala Lumpur
Malaysian authorities have blocked access to a website critical of Prime Minister Najib Razak’s government, saying the British-based news portal had violated a local Internet law in a move condemned by opposition lawmakers.
Sarawak Report, a website run by a British woman based in London, has been publishing reports and documents that allegedly include graft and mismanagement by the state investment fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) said the site had breached a law under the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998, prohibiting people from using a website to provide content “that is indecent, obscene, false, menacing, or offensive in character with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass any person.”
“MCMC decided to block a website that could threaten the country’s stability, namely Sarawak Report, for publishing contents with unproven veracity and that are under investigation, after receiving complaints from the public,” the commission said in a statement on Sunday evening.
The website, run by Clare Rewcastle Brown, a former BBC journalist and sister-in-law to ex-British prime minister Gordon Brown, issued a defiant statement
in response to the blocking.
“This is a blatant attempt to censor our exposures of major corruption through the development fund 1MDB,” said a statement posted on the Sarawak Report’s Facebook page.
“Sarawak Report will not be impeded in any way by this action in bringing out future information as and when its investigations deliver further evidence.”
“This latest blow to media freedom only brings further discredit upon the present administration, who have proven unable to counter the evidence we have presented in any other way.”
Opposition lawmaker Lim Kit Siang, from the Democratic Action Party, decried the action as diminishing the government’s credibility.
“My advice to Najib is to allow common sense to prevail, that blocking access to Sarawak Report is not going to end his 1MDB woes but the opposite, plunging his credibility and legitimacy to even unimagined depths, which is not good for him as prime minister and for the nation as well,” said Lim.
1MDB, with debts of over $11bn, is being investigated by authorities in Malaysia for financial mismanagement and graft. The state-owned firm’s advisory board is chaired by the prime minister.
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported earlier this month that investigators looking into 1MDB had traced close to $700mn of deposits into personal bank accounts belonging to Najib, according to documents from the probe.
1MDB has denied any wrong doing and Najib has dismissed the allegations as “political sabotage” and an attempt to undermine his leadership.
Najib is weighing legal options against the WSJ.
Both Najib and 1MDB have also said that previously leaked documents had “reportedly” been tampered with, and that the documents cited by the WSJ had not been verified
1MDB was launched in 2009 by Najib. Critics say it has been opaque in explaining its dealings.
The Centre for Independent Journalism, Malaysia (CIJ) yesterday called on the country’s Internet regulator to “respect the right to freedom of expression and to cease its blocking of Sarawak Report”.
“CIJ renews its calls for a focus on investigating the actual issues at hand, and rejects further regulation and censorship on the Internet as a way to manage the issue,” it said.
