I refer to your report Black Metal festival: Businessman charged .
'They robbed us of our youth'
'They robbed us of our rights'.
Youths who have built their own community of based on original music and art with positive values have been severely misrepresented by the media and harassed by the authorities who have acted out of a misguided notion of 'religious values' and 'justice'.
The mainstream media (notably Harian Metro , Kosmo and Mastika ) have misguided the Malaysian general public by tarnishing the image of decent youths as a scheme to promote their businesses while the authorities have unjustifiably abused their powers and infringed the democratic rights of these youth.
These youths, consisting of independent musicians and music lovers, aiming to create a contemporary society of varied Malaysian musical flavours and culture, have been labeled - out of ignorance - as 'satanic worshippers'.
On Dec 3 last year, a private event in Seremban billed as "Wrath of the Eastern Steel" was raided despite the fact that the organisers had a valid permit to run the event for their own friends and music fans. They were then labeled by the media as 'Virgin-sacrificing satanic worshippers' and 'Defilers of the Holy Quran'. Kosmo and Harian Metro neither used reliable sources nor provided a balanced report of the event. Instead, they published sensationalised reports that clearly breached the Malaysian Journalism Code of Ethics or any journalism code of ethics for that matter.
On Dec 31, the police from the Brickfields police station (with the mainstream media in tow) carried out a raid at Paul's Place in Old Klang Road, Kuala Lumpur on the pretext that it was 'Black Metal' event. Patrons, bands and anyone who happened to fit a 'devil worshiper's profile' (wearing black or in dark attire) at the venue were detained by the police. When asked for the basis of the detentions, the authorities gave excuses ranging from 'indecent exposure' to 'participating in a satanic occult gathering and ceremony'. They were reprimanded without a valid cause and sent to the Brickfields police station at 10pm.
One detainee, who was celebrating his birthday, suffered the humiliation of being detained at the police compound under the glaring eyes of the media who were present and pre-informed. With their cameras in his face, his was misrepresented via the mainstream electronic media as one of the faces of a 'satanic cult member'.
Those detained were forced to undergo urine tests similar to the event in Seremban and faced continuous lashing from the media's defamatory labeling as 'occultists'. The police did not even take their statements after all the hassle.
We, the victims of the mainstream media's unethical reporting and sensationalist motivation and the authority's unjust and unlawful actions, urge you, the Malaysian public, to sign (if approached) our petition to defend our rights to listen to music and express ourselves without being unjustly persecuted or harassed.
We urge you to sign to demand that Brickfields OCPD apologise publicly through the media to all detainees and that the editors of Harian Metro, Mastika and Kosmo resign from their posts.
We plead for your support, as we do not want this to happen again in future. Do not allow the following generations of young Malaysians to be victims of such unlawful and unethical actions. Stop the injustice!
