Open letter to Mohamed Hashim Ahmad Makaruddin

Executive Chairperson, Kumpulan Utusan

Dear Sir,

We at the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA) are deeply concerned by your company's verdict that Utusan Malaysia senior journalist and National Union of Journalists (NUJ) Malaysia president, Mohamed Hata Wahari, is guilty of "tarnishing" your company's image and "revealing corporate secrets".

We are aware that Article 10 of the federal constitution guarantees freedom of expression of all citizens, and a journalist is no exception to the rule. Hata, we believe, is just performing his duty of ensuring that the truth is uncovered if only Utusan Malaysia will practice fair and ethical journalism.

We therefore ask you and your company to refrain from taking any action against Hata, respecting his rights as a journalist and as a union leader—and any other journalists for that matter—to freely comment on the state of media freedom and issues that affect their livelihood and profession.

Taking any action against the journalist union leader whose alleged crime had only been to speak for press freedom would not be in keeping with Prime Minister Najib Razak’s progressive message three days after he assumed his post in April 2008, envisioning a freer media that would “hold the government and public officials accountable” and “report without fear and favour”.

Should Hata continue to be persecuted — and that is how SEAPA views this situation — it would only cause the further decline of the Malaysian press' standing. We note that the country's press freedom ranking has been steadily declining over the past years, placing it at the 141st position out of 178 countries, according to a 2010 index by Reporters Without Borders.

For these reasons, we reiterate our call for your company to stop taking action against Hata and instead respect his decision to perform his duty as a journalist and union leader.

Gayathry Venkiteswaran is executive director of SEAPA.