KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian government’s crackdown on the media and dissenters widened yesterday, as the home ministry suspended publication of two leading financial newspapers over their reporting of alleged graft at the country’s troubled state investment fund.
The Edge Weekly and The Edge Financial Daily were suspended for three months from July 27, just days after authorities blocked access to a website that has covered the scandal and has been critical of Prime Minister Najib Razak’s government.
Two opposition lawmakers said this week that they had been issued travel bans in connection with investigations into the debt-laden state fund 1MDB.
Najib has also been weighing legal action against the Wall Street Journal which reported that investigators looking into 1MDB had traced close to $700m of deposits moving into his personal account. Najib denied taking any money for personal gain and said the corruption allegations are part of a malicious campaign to force him out of office.
The Edge Media Group, which has a staff of around 350 people in Malaysia, has been reporting extensively on the allegations directed at 1MDB.
1MDB, with debts of over $11bn, is being investigated by authorities in Malaysia for financial mismanagement and graft. The state-owned firm’s advisory board is chaired by the prime minister.
The Edge Media Group said that the ministry issued a notice that claimed the two publications’ reporting of 1MDB was “prejudicial or likely to be prejudicial to public order, security or likely to alarm public opinion or is likely to be prejudicial to public and national interest”.
The Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ), a Malaysia-based non-profit group, condemned the suspension.
“For the government to censor a newspaper in this manner is an extremely heavy-handed measure and a breach of freedom of expression and media freedom in particular,” it said.
Najb's government has been under pressure from the opposition, and also from influential former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, to explain allegations of graft in the state fund 1MDB that were raised by the media.
Reuters
