KUALA LUMPUR, July 21 — The government should not penalise Qatari news agency Al Jazeera for reporting on the alleged mistreatment of undocumented migrants here, former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said.

In his debate on the motion of thanks for the Royal Address by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, the Langkawi MP said the government should table a report on its treatment of migrants to counter the news outlet.

“Foreigners easily accuse us of being harsh to immigrants. But Europe, the US, India are harsher.

“The government should not take harsh action against Al Jazeera reporters.  It is better if we submit our report regarding the treatment of migrants.

“Even though we give good treatment, there are cases which show as if we were being inconsiderate,” he added.

The National Film Development Corporation Malaysia (Finas) yesterday said that Al Jazeera did not have the necessary licence to film or air its documentary on the alleged mistreatment of migrants in Malaysia,

In a brief statement, Finas said it had carried out an investigation on Al Jazeera International (M) Sdn Bhd regarding the production of the documentary titled Locked Up In Malaysia’s Lockdown, which Finas said was aired over social media.

On Sunday, Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah reportedly said his ministry will check if Al Jazeera had obtained a licence from Finas to produce the documentary before it started production, saying that a lack of licence would be considered an offence as permission from Finas is needed before films and documentaries can be produced in Malaysia.

National news agency Bernama had also reported Saifuddin as saying that his ministry will via the Information Department check if Al Jazeera had violated media accreditation conditions.

Saifuddin was reported saying that the Information Department will cancel Al Jazeera’s media accreditation if it was found to have violated such conditions, noting that the crew would not be free to go anywhere without the media cards issued by the department.