Police should apologise to Malaysiakini journalist Susan Loone for arresting her under the Sedition Act yesterday, the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) said this evening.

“Even though the police have the right to question anyone through complaints made by certain NGOs, we, however, feel strongly that the Sedition Act had been wrongly applied in Susan's case and that the police should issue an apology to her for the trauma and inconveniences caused her and her family.

To abuse the law by intimidating the media had never been accepted by the local media nor been supported by the general public, NUJ president Chin Sung Chew ( left ) said in a statement.

He added that the NUJ will be writing a letter to Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi on the matter.

He said the NUJ believes that the use of the Sedition Act to investigate a journalist is a means to intimidate reporters and interfere with press freedom, and does not bode well for the government’s promise of a free media.

“NUJ believes all journalists have the right to interview any person to share insights into cases with the public's interest at hand, to convey public opinion and that the reporter reports what is given by the interviewees and not of their own comments,” he said, adding that Loone was merely doing her job.

Yesterday, Loone was arrested and quizzed for nine hours over her interview with Penang executive councillor Phee Boon Poh.

This followed 10 reports lodged on Tuesday by Perkasa and 13 others who call themselves ‘The Coalition of Penang Malay Representatives’, which claimed Loone and Malaysiakini had defamed the police in the articles based on the interview.

In the interview, Phee had claimed to have been questioned for four hours and treated like a criminal while in police custody, after he was arrested as part of the police crackdown on the Penang Voluntary Patrol Unit (PPS).

Concern about ‘political interference’

Meanwhile, the group Gerakan Media Marah expressed concern about possible political interference in Loone’s arrest.

“This incident is seen as a repeat of the arrest made against Sin Chew’s journalist Tan Hoon Cheng under the Internal Security Act on Sept 12, 2008.

“The government at that time had given the illogical excuse of trying to ‘protect the journalist’s safety’ by arresting her. Will the same excuse be used again in Susan’s case?” it said in a separate statement today.

Separately, the Institute of Journalists Malaysia said the arrest is unwarranted. It urged the government drop any impending charges against Loone and Malaysiakini, and repeal the Sedition Act.

It said it is the right of all journalists to report fairly and accurately on all events that are of public interest, noting that the accuracy of Loone’s report had not been denied.

“We believe the arrest is unwarranted and that the report does not in any way amount to seditious material within the ordinary meaning of the words ‘to undermine authority’,” it said.

In the Philippines, the NUJ’s Philippine counterpart said the complaints made against Loone and Malaysiakini are “obviously flimsy and frivolous” and urged that the investigation be dropped.

“This latest attempt to intimidate Malaysiakini and its journalists appears to be part and parcel of an alarming tendency among South-East Asian governments to stifle independent journalism by either resorting to repressive laws that often date back to their colonial pasts or crafting new legislation that narrows the parameters of free expression and freedom of the press,” said the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines in a statement today.

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