Police raided the home of Malaysiakini senior journalist B Nantha Kumar in connection with an investigation into an article concerning a proposed migrant worker recruitment system.
Nantha said two plainclothes police officers arrived at 2.30pm and searched the residence at Seri Serdang, Selangor, for about 45 minutes.
“However, no items were seized during the raid,” he added.
Earlier today, Nantha (above) was furnished with a search warrant stating that police have grounds to suspect that the “house or premises is being used for storage purposes, where it is believed that copies - both physical and material - of official documents exist, namely the cabinet memorandum (jemaah menteri memorandum) titled ‘Proposal for the Implementation of the Digital System The Universal Recruitment Advanced Platform (Turap) in the Process of Recruiting Foreign Workers to Malaysia’.”
‘Act of intimidation’
On April 1, Sepang district police headquarters said the investigation is being conducted under Section 203A of the Penal Code for unauthorised disclosure of information and Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act for improper use of network facilities or services.
Police also recorded a statement from Nantha as a witness. It is learned that the Human Resources Ministry lodged the report on the article after failing to respond to Malaysiakini’s repeated requests for comment before the article’s publication.
Last week, police also recorded a statement from Malaysiakini founder and director Premesh Chandran over the matter.
Commenting on the raid, Malaysiakini executive editor RK Anand said it amounted to nothing less than an act of intimidation against a journalist exercising his professional duty to report on matters of public interest.
“Regrettably, the same old tactic to silence and intimidate journalists persists,” he added. - Mkini
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