Salim the censorship czar

Salim Fateh Din is destroying Malaysia’s press freedom reputation

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) released the 2024 Freedom of the Press rankings, where Malaysia fell from 73rd to 107^th position, out of 180 countries. This has finally highlighted the dire straits of press freedom in Malaysia.

Websites have been illegally blocked by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), social media posts pulled down, and journalists and activists arrested and charged by the police.

The government is planning to extend the Printing Press and Publications Act to cover online media. This is creating a culture of fear among online news portals and journalists.

The recent censorship of news and comment on social media of the alleged assault of the Grab driver Ong Ing Keong by an escort of the Johor Regent, clearly shows the abuse of power exercised by the MCMC, under the chairmanship of the UMNO warlord Salim Fateh Din.

There is a misconception Fahmi Fadzil the communication minister is behind this censorship. Fahmi is too busy to do this. This is left to the domain of the chairman of the MCMC Salim Fateh Din. Salim is an unelected political appointee, who is clearly carrying out the will of prime minister Anwar Ibrahim and minister Fahmi.

Nevertheless, Salim has turned the MCMC into his own private fiefdom. Salim is so blatant in his abuse of power, he uses the tools of the MCMC to censor and block critics of his own company MRCB.

In any other country, Salam would have to resign out of conflict of interest and the misuse of MCMC power for his own benefit. The minister Fahmi is incapable of safeguarding the rule of law.

The tools currently misused by the MCMC under the tenure of Salim include;

1.      Arbitrary and illegal blocking of websites and blog sites of those who criticize the government, or expose corruption under the Madani government without ‘due process’. Wee Choo Keong won a court order against the MCMC to disclose the documentation within the MCMC concerning the blocking of his website,

2.      Using Meta (Facebook) to censor critics of the government (there are many pro-government content moderators working at Meta),

3.      Excess use of Section 233 of the Communication and Multimedia Act 1998, to the point of abusing it, in order to engage the police to charge critics of the government,

4.      The use of police and MCMC employees to raid, search, arrest, confiscate phones and computers, and detain critics for the purpose of intimidating them,

5.      Making public statements which infer criminal guilt of government critics without any ‘due process’ of the law,

6.      The use of cyber-bullies like Ahirudin Attan (Rockybru) to attack the reputation of critics of the government and those who expose corruption, and

7.      The use of Israeli software Pegasus to ‘spy’ on peoples’ computers, mobile phones, and conversations without legal authority.

The illegal and overzealous activities of the MCMC must be curtailed and its chairman Salim Fetah Din dismissed and investigated. The MCMC must be brought under control with an independent oversight committee brought in to stop any abuse of power. There must also be an MCMC ombudsman appointed to independently handle complaints against the MCMC.

The MCMC must be taken out of political hands.

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