Press group urges MACC to drop plan to charge Malaysiakini reporter

Summary

• Committee to Protect Journalists urges the MACC to withdraw its plan to charge Malaysiakini reporter B Nantha Kumar with bribery.

• Its Asia programme coordinator, Beh Lih Yi, says journalists must be free to report and expose corruption and wrongdoings.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has urged MACC to cancel its plan to charge Malaysiakini reporter B Nantha Kumar with bribery.

This followed MACC’s notice to Nantha this afternoon, telling the journalist to appear at the Shah Alam Sessions Court on Friday.

In condemning the decision, CPJ Asia programme coordinator Beh Lih Yi said, “Journalists must be free to uncover wrongdoing and corruption.”

“Too often, we see governments use spurious charges to smear the journalist’s reputation, to erode public trust in their reporting.

“@SPRMMalaysia should drop their pending charges,” she said on X.

MACC had informed Nantha that he would face charges this Friday over allegations of receiving an RM20,000 bribe.

The reporter, who has denied the accusation, believed that it was an attempt to silence him from exposing corruption.

On March 7, Malaysiakini published Nantha’s account of the events leading to his arrest on March 1.

The senior journalist denied soliciting RM100,000 from a Pakistani agent or negotiating the sum down to RM20,000.

Nantha maintained that he was working with a state immigration director to expose a migrant worker syndicate.

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