YOURSAY ‘This is neither the time nor place for authorities to appear vindictive.’

Gov't mulling legal action on MH370 misreports

Anonymous #21828131: Well, with each passing day, every Tom, Dick and Harry has his own theory on the missing MH370.

So is it wrong of them to speak their mind? This morning I overheard the garbage men offering their version of the story. Would you want to sue them too?

We are dealing with the international press here, and not just Malaysiakini . By the looks of the attorney-general should be preparing for legal action against the BBC, CNN, CCTV, Al Jazeera and the whole works.

Onyourtoes: Hello, if you are not careful, you may get counter legal action for giving out confusing and inconsistent statement.

Nothing to hide does not mean you are not incompetent or confused. We are not just talking about the search effort. We want to know what happened during the first few crucial hours when the plane was "missing" from the radar?

Odin: Yes, you can threaten and act against Malaysia's publishers of news because you have compliant police, judiciary and the AG’s Chambers on your side, but there is not even a shred of doubt that you would have not the guts to act against any of those foreign parties which might have published misleading or erroneous reports.

Bullies are invariably cowards and dullards. And I am addressing myself to one example of such odious creatures.

Anonymous$&@?: The media has been unfairly accused because they print what was seen/heard when they attend the media briefings by the acting transport minister's team.

One day they say 'this', another day they say 'that' - this only makes the rakyat/readers shake their heads in disbelief. And the media is being blamed for telling it as it is.

One wonders if the international media would be hauled up by the PDRM (Malaysian Royla Police) for their reporting?

Aries46: Misreporting aside, most of the concerns and criticism thus far has been as a result of the many twist and turns, flip-flops, misinformation and lack of information that has contributed in no small way to the speculative nature of certain news items locally and abroad.

In fact the lack of vital information is also a contributing cause for the unusual drawn-out search for the missing flight MH370 that has yet to yield anything after 27 days of unrelenting search.

What is significant though is the indispensable role of the critical media that was the added impetus to inform as well as to keep the momentum to find the missing plane at all cost. Let that not be trivialised at any cost.

For the sake of our dignity and image and the agonised relatives of those on board MH370, this is neither the time nor place for the authorities to appear vindictive or to issue threats of legal actions as everyone’s effort is needed to find MH370 and the 239 lives aboard takes precedence.

JungleMonkey: What a disgraceful bunch of sore loser. Stop blaming others for your incompetence.

If you have sacked Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) director and the Air Force chief, I think the world will be more forgiving and none of this blame game will exist.

Paul Warren: Is that another idiot talking? Right now when you are down and out when you need all the sympathy you can get, you want to talk tough with those who can help you the most.

I bet this thinking can only come about as a result of Malaytocracy that has cultivated this ‘ketuanan Melayu’ mentality.

Magnus: Dear acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein, please grow up and stop threatening others and instead learn to accept genuine criticism and more importantly, learn from it and turn the problem into an opportunity to build better understanding.

Being gung-ho and defensive when you have no leg to stand on such behaviour will make things worse for you and Malaysia.

Some things were done right but many others things were done wrong and without any real empathy for the families of those who were on board the lost MH370.

That view of collective ineptitude and incompetence and misjudgements in front of the world and its media is a worldwide view and not just mine.

If you need convincing, please read what even the well-respected Financial Times had to say very disappointingly about the way in which MAS and the Malaysian government have handled many aspects of this MH370 international disaster and tragedy.

Pemerhati: As the government is mulling legal action against some media for their false reports, it should be remembered that the media were doing what Hishammuddin and his cohorts were doing after repeatedly saying that all that was revealed at the press conferences had been checked and corroborated.

One terrible example of lying and cooking up a story came when Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, the DG of Department of Civil Aviation, said that five persons had checked in and did not board the plane and hence their bags were brought down.

The other big lie was that the last communication from the pilots was, “all right, good night”. That has now been changed to “good night, Malaysian three seven zero”.

These types of lies are now being discussed internationally in the main news media and give Malaysia and its people a very bad name. After seeing the dismal performance of Hishammuddin and his cohorts at the press conferences, they are likely to think that Malaysia is a third world country run by incompetent third class people.

Capo: Go ahead and sue, but get the plane first or its wreckage. Then, explain factually and credibly to all the affected families, Malaysians and the international community how MH370 loss came about.

Also get yourself prepared for multi-national lawsuits coming Malaysia's way. As such, you have now lost the luxury to even think about suing based on misreports, let alone do it.

We, the rakyat of Malaysia, should take legal action against this incompetent Umno government for dragging the country good name through the mud in the eyes of the world.

Wira: Even the simple last words from the cockpit had to be revised more than three weeks later. Perhaps the truth is somewhere in between incompetency and concealing facts.

Joseph Lee: Yes, Hisham, I agree with you. We should go to wherever the country of domicile of the media that misreported and sue them in their home base.

We must teach the foreign media a lesson that they cannot take our ministers and government officials lightly and with disrespect.

It is not enough that we only sue them in our Malaysian courts as this way they will not be taught a lesson and also all that we may receive is a paper judgment. I urge you to proceed with haste and sue them all that have misreported.

Ferdtan: Minister Hishammuddin Hussein, stop your nonsense about suing. Just do your job - find the missing plane MH370. That also you cannot handle well and you want to talk big about suing.

You are a small-minded man to think of small matter (like suing for false reports) when a larger problem of still missing plane is at hand.

Don’t make the international audience laugh at you; thus indirectly at us, Malaysians, as you are our leader.

CiViC: Yes, please sue. Take these people who "misreports" to court and charge them. And please start off with those giving wrong information in official press conferences first.


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