Journalists and photographers were barred from covering a public hearing on the Shah Alam City Council’s (MBSA) draft local plan 2021-2035 this morning.
Among the contentious points of the plan is the council’s proposal to convert the Shah Alam Community Forest (Rimba Komuniti Shah Alam) into a commercial development and a cemetery.
The public hearing was scheduled to begin at 9:15am at the Wisma MBSA banquet hall in Shah Alam, Selangor.
However, MBSA officers barred media personnel from entering the hall or reporting on the session, saying the council did not invite the media.
Local residents and members of the public who previously registered their objections to the local plan and who were issued a formal invitation letter were allowed in.
When contacted, Selangor executive councillor (local government, public transport and new village development) Ng Sze Han said the public hearing was a “closed-door” affair.
“My apologies, this is a closed-door hearing,” he said in a WhatsApp message to Malaysiakini.
Ng is believed to be chairing the session.
'Another session'
When doorstepped outside the hall, MBSA councillor Pappa Raidu Veraman asked if media personnel had received an “invitation” to cover the session.
He stressed that today’s public hearing was “not open to the public".
"Because according to the officers inside, the pegawai perancang (planning officers), we haven’t concluded the final hearing yet.
“So it will be another session for you to come and do the bantahan (objections) and all this thing, not now,” Pappa Raidu added.
This is despite clarifications that the media was present to cover the session, not to oppose it.
The media was invited to cover the session by the Shah Alam Community Forest Society (SACFS).
When local residents attempted to assist the media by proposing they enter the session as “representatives” for those who were not present, MBSA officers allowed it on condition that the session was not reported.
MBSA officers also told journalists to surrender their recording devices. - Mkini
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