SHAH ALAM, 14 Dec: The actions of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MOHA) against “The Heat” newspaper is seen as an attempt to hide the issue of extravagant spending by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, and his wife, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor.
The PKR Information Chief, Dr Muhammad Nur Manuty, said that the move is clearly against media freedom and the right to voice out, as stressed in the constitution.
“This is very disappointing. Najib talks about integrity transparency, key performance indicators (KPI) and so on. But when he and his wife are criticised in a newspaper, there is action from the MOHA.
“In the current era of social media, it is not a wise move since the people can still obtain information from the internet,” said Muhammad Nur, quoted from Keadilan Daily.
He was commenting on the move by the MOHA to issue a show-cause letter to the weekly news publication “The Heat” for publishing an article on Najib and Rosmah’s extravagant spending recently.
“The MOHA’s actions go against media freedom, and it is not appropriate for a developed country. This situation is very different from other countries, such as Indonesia, which much ahead in media freedom,”
“In Indonesia, the people are free to criticise leaders on television or in newspapers, and this is far different from Malaysia,” said Muhammad Nur.
