Amanah Youth urges Home Ministry to shut down Sarawak Tribune

Amanah Youth has urged the Home Ministry and the MCMC to take strict action against Sarawak Tribune, including calling for its closure.

Amanah Youth International Bureau chairperson, Mus’ab Muzahar, emphasised that the party’s youth wing strongly condemns the newspaper’s “disrespectful” actions of publishing a defamatory headline on Al Jazeera journalist Anas Al-Sharif, who was killed in a Zionist attack in Gaza.

“The headline clearly tried to portray him as a militant, thus repeating the false narrative promoted by the Zionist regime to justify the killing of Palestinian journalists.

“Even more disappointing, the apology issued by Sarawak Tribune still did not retract the headline at all, nor did they express regret for the defamation.

“Further, the same edition also gave special coverage to Benjamin Netanyahu without mentioning his role as a genocidal criminal responsible for the deaths of over 60,000 Palestinians and almost 250 journalists since 2023,” Mus’ab said in a statement today.

Earlier this week, Sarawak Tribune published an apology for its print report on the killing of Anas, who was portrayed as a militant, with the headline “Militant using press cover eliminated”.

Anas, one of the most prominent journalists in Gaza, was killed last Sunday alongside several of his colleagues in a targeted Israeli attack on a tent housing Palestinian journalists.

He is survived by a wife and two children.

Serious concern

Despite admitting that the article on Anas’s death did not fulfil high standards of accuracy, Sarawak Tribune nevertheless denied accusations that the newspaper was promoting a Zionist narrative.

Mus’ab also added that Amanah Youth takes serious concern about local media attempts to “normalise genocide” and silence the truth by spreading false information.

“Sarawak Tribune's dark history of being shut down for publishing content insulting Prophet Muhammad should have been a lesson to us all. However, this latest incident has proven that they still fail to uphold journalistic ethics and integrity.

“Media freedom cannot be used as a shield to spread slander and reinforce a genocidal narrative,” he emphasised.

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