Probe agent instead of targeting journalist, union tells MACC

Summary

• NUJM urges MACC to investigate a migrant worker agent instead of targeting Malaysiakini journalist B Nantha Kumar, who had filed a police report accusing the agent of bribery.

• It also told MACC to stop harassing or intimidating journalists.

• Nantha, arrested on Feb 28 for allegedly taking RM20,000, denies wrongdoing, claiming he took the money as evidence against a trafficking syndicate.

The National Union of Journalists (NUJM) has urged the MACC to investigate the activities of an alleged agent for migrant workers instead of Malaysiakini journalist B Nantha Kumar.

This followed Nantha’s police report on Saturday that the Pakistani agent had allegedly tried to buy him off.

“The NUJM hopes that the police will conduct a thorough and transparent investigation into the matter and hold the relevant parties accountable.

“At the same time, the NUJM urges the MACC to thoroughly investigate the agent’s activities and past record according to Nantha’s police report rather than unfairly targeting a journalist who was merely carrying out his duty as an investigative journalist in the public interest,” its general secretary Teh Athira Yusof said in a statement today.

It also urged the MACC to refrain from harassing or intimidating journalists.

The MACC had arrested Nantha at a Shah Alam hotel on Feb 28, claiming he had received RM20,000 from the agent in exchange for not publishing two articles that would expose the cartel. He was released on Tuesday.

READ MORE: Bribe allegation: This is my story

Nantha has worked with Malaysiakini since 2018 and has written extensively about migrant trafficking syndicates, including those involving the Immigration Department.

In the police report lodged following his release from MACC’s custody, Nantha denied soliciting or accepting any bribe from the agent, whom he identified as Zahid.

Instead, he said he had taken the envelope given by Zahid as evidence against the migrant worker trafficking syndicate that Zahid was supposedly working for.

However, he said the MACC arrested him on the spot upon receiving the envelope, before he could report the incident to the Immigration Department.

Nantha also urged the police to investigate Zahid’s background, who purportedly holds a professional visa despite confessing that he was previously jailed in Malaysia over a human trafficking offence.

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