Kulim Bandar Baru MP Zulkifli Noordin should lodge a police report against Malaysiakini if the politician wants the news portal investigated over allegations of spreading false news, said Inspector-General of Police Musa Hassan.

NONE "Without a report we will not know who is right and who is wrong, because everyone wants to have a say," he told reporters at the National Blood Bank yesterday.

Quoted by Utusan Malaysia today, Musa was responding to a blog entry by the independent MP, who urged the authorities to take action against the website, which he accused of "acting like it is untouchable".

Zulkifli was commenting on Wangsa Maju MP Wee Choo Keong's statement last Thursday lambasting Malaysiakini for reporting rumours that he would defect from PKR.

Wee had accused Malaysiakini of being "unprofessional" for publishing untrue allegations that he would defect and said the website was being misled by "little Napoleons" in PKR.

A move to protect the truth

The grapevine has been buzzing about Wee's alleged plans to defect for months, with speculations rife during the Hulu Selangor by-election campaign last week.

In his blog entry, Zulkifli, who coined the term "little pharaohs" to refer to certain individuals within PKR, accused the portal as being outdated by dubbing it "Malaysiakuno".

He argued that taking action against the portal will not hinder freedom of expression but is a move to protect "truth and the integrity of journalism".

As such, he said, the authorities should ignore the "barks of those claiming freedom of expression".

vk lingam hearing wee choo keong pc thirunama 180108 stern "We don't want to appear to be a country that allows ‘kilang fitnah' (slander factories) to grow without control," he said.

In his accusations against Malaysiakini , Wee alleged that the website's journalist was not present during a conversation he had with a few members of the press on April 20 in Parliament.

"That's not true. Our journalist Hazlan Zakaria was there and we have a video clip to prove it,' said Malaysiakini editor Fathi Aris Omar.