Owners and editors of newspapers in the state have been told to refrain from publishing reports regarding properties worth billions of ringgit allegedly owned by Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud and his family.
The directive from the CM's department came in the wake of a number of reports lodged with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Agency, urging it to investigate Taib’s properties.
The directive was conveyed late this week to the owners and editors through the state department of information.
The directive also told the editors not to send reporters to cover any press conferences by PKR in the state, apparently in retaliation against the party’s youth wing for lodging a report with the MACC over Taib's wealth.
Contacted today, several editors declined to comment on the directive.
However group editor of The Borneo Post and Utusan Borneo Jimmy Adit said that he heard about the directive from his colleagues, but denied receiving it personally.
“How can they stop us publishing a PKR statement if it is a good statement, not liable or inflammatory?
“They cannot simply issue a directive like that,” he said.
Three MACC reports have so far been lodged against Taib after a news portal, The Sarawak Report, carried articles claiming that Taib and his family owned overseas properties worth billions of ringgit.
His daughter Jamilah is said to head their business empire in Canada, England and Australia.
Several blogs and websites have been highlighting the reports which Taib's party Parti Pesaka Bumiputra Bersatu has described as “lies”.
The party has set up a media unit to closely monitor these reports in the blogs and websites and to issue statements to counter the lies.
courtesy of FMT
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