SHAH ALAM December 26th: A campaign in protest against the Ministry of Home Affairs (MOHA) suspension of a news weekly ‘The Heat’ attracted attention of writers and media activists outside the country.
Extracted from Malaysia Now, Indonesia Humanist Goenawan Mohamad, founder of Journalists Alliance of Indonesia (AJI) Andreas Harsono and renowned novelist Ayu Utami also participated to express their support for members of the media in this country, on the third day of the daily tweet campaign.
“The media can be wrong, but silencing (gripping) the media has more losses than benefits. The biggest to lose are the citizens of Malaysia,” Andreas wrote on his twitter account (@andreasharsono) last night.
Andreas who also won the award for ‘John Rumbiak Supporter of Human Rights’ mainly because of his efforts in West Papua is among the most vigorous to invite contemporary Indonesian activists to lend support to the Angry Media Movement (GERAMM) .
Meanwhile, Goenawan also invited friends in Indonesia to protests the suspension of ‘The Heat’ on Twitter.
“There is press censorship (newspapers suspension) in Malaysia: follow TL (updated tweet) @ andreasharsono,” he tweeted.
Winner of the Prince Claus Award from the Dutch government, Ayu Utami was among the earliest prominent figures to support the cause of Malaysian media groups.
“The independent fight of media activist groups in Malaysia reminded me of AJI’s ‘New Order’; keep at the fight! (Continue fighting),” he wrote.
The trio are mobilizing activists who struggled against the Indonesian media and is believed to be responsible for bringing President Suharto’s ‘New Order’ administration of 1994 to its fall in 1998.
