'Journos put themselves in war zone during Bersih 3.0'

The conduct of journalist has been called into question by police as a contributing factor to incidents of media practitioners being beaten by gangs of cops during the recent Bersih 3.0 pro-electoral reform rally.

“According to guidelines... they are not supposed to put themselves in a war zone while doing coverage. During Bersih, they put themselves in a war zone.

“They were between the authorities and rally participants. If a riot occurs, they will be trapped between the two,” argued ACP Jamaluddin Abdul Rahman at the Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) inquiry into alleged human rights abuses by authorities during the April 28 rally.

He was cross-examining the 27th inquiry witness, V Anbalagan (right), who is the secretary-general of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ).

While Anbalagan agreed that a guideline recently published by NUJ did indeed say what Jamaluddin posited, he disputed that Bersih 3.0 was equivalent to a warzone.

“And even if they were trapped between the two, police should not have assaulted journalists,” countered the NUJ official.

[More to follow]