KUALA LUMPUR – Lawyers For Liberty (LFL) should always be fair in any dispute and treat all parties equally, says National Press Club (NPC) president Datuk Ahirudin Attan.
He said this following LFL’s statement criticising the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) for lodging a police report against a foreign blogger, Murray Hunter, who claimed the internet regulator and police had become “politicised institutions”.
“Because the victim here is not Murray Hunter, he is the perpetrator, the attacker. The victim is your own institution, MCMC. LFL is Malaysian, and MCMC is Malaysian. The least LFL can do is be fair.
“If you want to take MCMC to task for lodging the police report, you should take Murray Hunter to task, question him why he is so concerned, focused on Malaysia in a negative way… we don’t know why he (Hunter) did such things, so how can LFL be so sure that he has the best Malaysian interest?,” he told Bernama after the NPC-Macrokiosk Muhibbah Awards 2024 at NPC Malaysia, here yesterday.
Moreover, Ahirudin opined that LFL should not be political in this dispute, as such actions could lead people to think that LFL had a political agenda.
“Like when Murray Hunter attacked the Sultan of Selangor last month, saying that the Sultan of Selangor ‘misused his power’, did LFL make any noise about it? Did they question Murray Hunter about it? I’m all for freedom of expression, and press freedom, but we need to write the truth. If we write semi-truth, it is still not considered the truth.
“We journalists know that Murray Hunter is not a journalist, he is a former lecturer who was sacked from Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP), so naturally he has an axe to grind with Malaysians. If they (LFL) want to support Murray Hunter, that’s okay, but be fair to the victims,” he said.
Yesterday, MCMC lodged a report against Hunter as his postings were deemed slanderous for openly accusing the commission of acting beyond its jurisdiction for personal interests, as well as claiming that the commission and police were trying to scare the public.
The commission also reminded that spreading untrue content, including with the intention of disturbing other parties was a crime under Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 and uploading slanderous content about the MCMC was also a crime.
Earlier, Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil defended the MCMC for lodging a police report against Hunter, stating that the internet regulator was well within its rights to do so.
On the launch of Anugerah Muhibbah NPC-Macrokiosk 2024 event, co-founder and chief executive officer of Macrokiosk Datuk Kenny Goh said the 2024 award would continue to recognise individuals, groups and organisations that exemplified the true essence of Muhibbah (unity), promoting unity and goodwill across Malaysia this year.
“We are excited to once again work with NPC to launch this second series of our Muhibbah Awards. We hope the awards will continue to inspire more Malaysians to care for and respect each other,” he said.
Goh said in its inaugural series, the Muhibbah Awards celebrated six winners, and Malaysians could expect even more inspiring narratives of compassion, unity and dedication in the society with the upcoming 2024 edition. – May 1, 2024