'The IGP decides on who the police want to investigate for sedition, the Attorney-General’s Chamber decides on whether to press charges while the court will decide on whether the accused is guilty or
not'
'The crux of the matter is not the freedom of the press. TMI, which has a long track record of cheating and lying is no paragon of press freedom'
Helen Ang
Good question Marina, and it deserved a good response:
This is Helen Ang's response to her (reproduced with permission from Helen lah of course):
81. 
Helen Ang | April 1, 2015 at 2:49 pm
Helen Ang | April 1, 2015 at 2:49 pm
MARINA MAHATHIR VS. KHALID ABU BAKAR
‘Why does IGP get to decide what’s seditious? Marina Mahathir asks after TMI 5 arrests’ – an article in The Malay Mail yesterday.
The news portal quoted Marina as saying, “Very sad day for media freedom, as limited as we already had. How come IGP gets to decide who is seditious and who is not?”
Well, if not the Inspector-General of Police, then who? After all, it is Khalid Abu Bakar who represents the power of the authorities as the country’s top law enforcement officer.
So yeah – to answer Marina’s question – indeed he gets to decide on THE INVESTIGATION of “who is seditious and who is not”. Being the PM’s consultant in NUCC, Marina ought really be more knowledgeable about these things.
Yup, the IGP decides on who the police want to investigate for sedition, the Attorney-General’s Chamber decides on whether to press charges while the court will decide on whether the accused is guilty or not.
And no, the arrest of Ho Kay Tat, Jahabar Sadiq and Gang is not a “[v]ery sad day for media freedom” as claimed by Marina. Not at all.
It is a day most welcomed as the agenda-driven TMI has been terrorizing Malaysians through their patently false reports, concocted from thin air, and their character assassination of innocent victims.
When contacted yesterday, Marina told The Malay Mail, “If the report is inaccurate, then there should be official statement on it. TMI would lose some credibility”.
The truth of the matter is, TMI simply refuses to correct their maliciously faked copy, even when the request comes from the Prime Minister’s Office itself.
Below are the PMO tweets on 25 March 2015 complaining about TMI’s deliberate misrepresentation of a part of the PM’s speech. TMI put words in Najib Razak’s mouth that he never uttered.
PMO statement:
“We wld like 2 clarify an inaccurate story by The Msian Insider today. PM @NajibRazak did not say Sedition Act is needed 2 curb terrorism.”“In his speech, PM @NajibRazak said: ‘We also prioritise racial & religious harmony, that is why we need to strengthen the Sedition Act’.”“Despite our request to correct the story, The Malaysian Insider has yet to do so.”
If the PM himself is unable to obtain redress/correction from TMI for its deliberate misquote, then how would the rest of us mere mortals fare when we are bullied and smeared by the TMI lying and spinning machine?
It was widely reported that TMI had committed “suatu provokasi fitnah yang sangat jahat sekali ke atas institusi Kesultanan Melayu”.
According to a report in the Malaysia Aktif portal, the Council of Rulers expressed their “kemurkaan yang amat sangat”. See ‘Tindakan Tegas perlu dikenakan terhadap Portal Malaysia Insider’ article on 26 March 2015.
Malaysia Aktif reported that the Council had taken to task TMI for “mencemar ketinggian darjat dan martabat ke Bawah Duli-duli Yang Maha Mulia Sultan dan Raja-raja Melayu”.
“Majlis Raja-raja Melayu menafikan sekeras-kerasnya artikel berkenaan dan tidak pernah membincangkan mengenai pindaan Perlembagaan berkenaan pelaksanaan hudud sebagaimana yang ditulis.”
The Keeper of the Rulers’ Seal proceeded to lodge a police report on March 26 saying that the TMI report is false.
Isma in its March 31 article pointed out that despite all the brouhaha, TMI still yet chose to display the false and malicious story in its website for a week. – “Sehingga berita ini ditulis TMI terus mengekalkan laporan mengaitkan Majlis Raja-Raja dengan hudud dalam ruangan ‘MOST READ THIS WEEK’.”
The Malay Mail story further quoted Marina as saying that the “heavy-handedness makes people sympathise with TMI, especially since it’s the latest in a long line of arrests”.
It also said that Marina believes, “If you arrest people for voluntarily coming forward to aid in investigations, what incentive is there ever to help the police?”
Those who sympathise would sympathise regardless. Even after TMI‘s credibility has been torn to shreds, it makes no difference simply because some Malaysians are so partial and partisan due to the ABU-ABU-ABU politics that they’ve lost their moral compass.
Marina’s statement on “what incentive is there ever to help the police?” is certainly typical of her ‘Liberal Doses’ persona.
She is now going on a Twitter overdrive tweeting her support for press freedom vis-à-vis TMI.
The crux of the matter is not the freedom of the press. TMI, which has a long track record of cheating and lying is no paragon of press freedom.
In fact, TMI‘s abuse of the media went so far as to include the publication of a doctored photo that cast the PAS president in a bad light. A banner carried during a recent ‘Free Anwar’ demo was Photoshopped to say “Undur Hadi” when the actual wording had referred to somebody else.
And Marina seems to harbour double standards. Freedom of the press was not on her mind when she was so very quick to sue Isma for linking her – in her capacity as a director in Sisters in Islam – to the Comango faith freedom initiative.
In fact, Marina also threatened to sue any website or blog that reproduced the Isma flyer which had her name on it.
The issue with TMI is misrepresentation and defamation. Its editors were hauled up to be investigated on the charge of publishing seditious material that has the tendency “to bring into hatred or contempt or to excite disaffection” against the Rulers.
Pakatan media have been spinning as if there was only a careless and forgivable mistake contained in the TMI article. This is so sneaky.
The entire TMI article is a complete fabrication. Our nine Sultans, Raja and Yamtuan Besar have rebutted the article as false.
Hence Marina’s Bangsar Malaysia posturing against the IGP does her no credit.
It’s Marina-0, IGP-1, I’m afraid.
Thanks Helen Ang for that,
Yup we are all very annoyed and tired with the shallow defense of the usual liberals who thinks that TMI can say whatever it wants in the name of press freedom, we all know that's all bull shit, ask the French and American lah.
