Malaysiakini lodges report over Jamal's 'tear down' office threat

Malaysiakini has lodged a police report over red-shirts leader Jamal Md Yunos' threat to "tear down" part of the news portal's office this Saturday.

"I am making this report and humbly request the police to provide necessary personnel to protect our staff and neighbouring offices and maintain crowd control to prevent any untoward incidents from happening," its general manager K Manohar said, in the police report lodged at the Petaling Jaya police district headquarters today.

Yesterday, Jamal, along with a contingent of more than 100 members, visited the portal's office in Petaling Jaya.

He then demanded that Malaysiakini disclose their financial statements and other documents by noon on Nov 5, failing which he will lead his followers to "make sure part of the Malaysiakini office building is torn down" on that day.

This was over reports that the news portal had received a grant from Open Society Foundations (OSF), which is linked to American billionaire George Soros.

Several Malaysiakini editors who met with Jamal at the portal's office explained to him that the OSF grant was used for its sister site KiniTV to produce news reports related to Sarawak and that the rest of its operation is fully funded through income from subscriptions and advertising.

Malaysiakini had also provided a detailed explanation on the matter, which is available on the website, while its finances are audited annually and available for scrutiny at the Companies Commission.

When asked whether he still intended to proceed with the Saturday gathering outside the Malaysiakini office after yesterday's meeting, Jamal replied: "We will see, in the next one or two days, what they (Malaysiakini) will prove."

Earlier today, the inspector-general of police had said that if the portal viewed Jamal's threat as criminal intimidation, then they should lodge a police report on this matter.- Mkini