KUALA LUMPUR, May 29 — A global rights watchdog has urged Datuk Seri Najib Razak not to proceed with plans to sue Malaysiakini for defamation, telling the prime minister that his government should not “act as if they have a monopoly on truth”.

In a statement here, Human Rights Watch (HRW) deputy Asia director Phil Robertson said any person who holds public office would also shoulder the responsibility of listening to opposing views.

This responsibility does not mean suing a media outlet for publishing opinions expressed by readers, he added.

“Elected Malaysian government officials should not act as if they have a monopoly on truth,” Robertson said.

He noted that Najib had in a speech on May 26 defended his legal action against Malaysiakini, saying it was not part of any crack down or an attempt to silence dissent.

“A strong and vibrant media is an essential part of a mature democracy. When journalists are empowered, society can benefit. The press can hold governments, corporations and people to account. At its best, the media holds a mirror up to society; so that we may see our flaws, and fix them, Najib had said.

In his speech, the prime minister also highlighted measures already undertaken to liberalise the media, including his decision to revoke the requirement for newspapers to renew their print licenses annually.

“But there is a difference between legitimate criticism, and defamation. Defamation can be either primary – when someone makes a defamatory remark – or secondary, when that remark is reproduced. Both are treated equally by the law.

“It is my legal team’s opinion that recent allegations by an online news portal overstepped the line. They have therefore issued a legal notice,” he said, referring to legal action against Malaysiakini.

But HRW said the prime minister’s words appeared to run contrary to his actions.

“Najib’s remarks suggest that defamation is defined as any statement not deemed ‘legitimate’ and provides no allowance for public officials to be subjected to a greater range of criticism,” the rights group said.

Najib, who is also Umno president, had in his personal capacity issued legal letters to Malaysiakini earlier this month, saying that failure to meet his and Umno’s demands within the stipulated deadline of 48 hours would result in a lawsuit.

In the letter signed off by Mohd Hafarizam, Najib and Umno claimed that the articles compiled by Malaysiakini’s editorial team amounted to irresponsible journalism, were published in bad faith and intended to damage their “reputation and credibility”.

The alleged defamatory comments published as commentaries by Malaysiakini were on the recent Terengganu crisis, which nearly saw the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) government lose its hold over the east coast state.

The incident was triggered by the resignations of three BN lawmakers led by former mentri besar Datuk Seri Ahmad Said, who left Umno to declare themselves independent representatives.

The trio’s resignations saw BN lose its slim majority in the 32-seat Terengganu assembly for just under 48 hours, before the lawmakers agreed to make good with the ruling party.

Najib and Umno demanded that Malaysiakini issue an unconditional apology and withdraw the articles, besides providing compensation and a written undertaking to refrain from publishing any other defamatory statements.

But in a responding letter to Najib on May 20, the news portal denied any wrongdoing and insisted that Umno has no standing to sue for libel.

It also insisted that contents of the two offending articles, “A case of the PM reaping what he sows” and “How much will Najib spend to keep Terengganu?”, constituted of readers’ remarks that came under the category of fair comment and not defamatory in nature.

“We are therefore unable to take down the Commentary Pieces as requested by you, and will assert that there is nothing for us to apologise for nor is there any compensation due to your clients,” the news portal said in a letter to Umno legal adviser Datuk Mohd Hafarizam Harun.

Robertson labelled the suit threat “heavy-handed”.

He noted that in response to HRW’s queries, Malaysiakini editor-in-chief Steven Gan said publicly that, “Yes we are going to fight it” and that “we are standing our ground”.

Apart from urging Najib to drop the suit, Robertson said the Malaysian government should also allow Malaysiakini to have the print license it previously sought but was turned down.

“The Malaysian government should end its arbitrary and punitive treatment of Malaysiakini, and grant it a license to start a print edition without delay,” Robertson said. “Using printing licenses to restrict journalistic coverage critical of the government violates freedom of the press.”