KUALA LUMPUR, March 31 — Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said he is not involved in the police enforcement of sedition laws that led to the arrests of four journalists from The Malaysian Insider and their publisher.
He said he has no active role in the “operational” matters of the police, and that any action against the news portal and its staff was the purview and responsibility of the police.
“I am not directly involved in operational activities of the police. That is purely PDRM’s responsibility,” he told reporters, using the Malay initials of the police force.
“The matter could be because of the police report made by the representative of the Conference of Rulers,” Zahid added.
Last week, TMI ran a report citing an unnamed source as claiming that the Conference of Rulers had rejected proposed legal amendments that would allow hudud to be enforced. This was later denied by the Keeper of the Rulers’ Seal, who also lodged a police report over the article.
Three TMI editors were arrested last night under the Sedition Act 1948 and the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 over the report, while chief executive Jahabar Sadiq and Ho Kay Tat, who heads The Edge Media Group that owns TMI, were arrested this morning under the same laws.
The arrests of the journalists comes amid a string of sedition investigations against PR MPs such as Rafizi Ramli from PKR as well as Tony Pua and Nga Kor Ming from the DAP over their tweets critical of police action and Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s sodomy conviction.
Lembah Pantai MP Nurul Izzah Anwar was also arrested and detained overnight for a sedition investigation over a speech she delivered in Parliament on behalf of the jailed Anwar.
