Inspector-General of Police Hamid Bador today assured all journalists in the country of their safety and pledged commitment to upholding media freedom.
"I want to give my assurance to the media, whether local media or foreign media, that your safety is guaranteed.
"If there have been threats made, they can come forward and make a report and we, the police, will investigate it," he said during a press conference at Bukit Aman.
Abdul Hamid's statement follows public backlash towards international broadcaster Al Jazeera's over its '101 East' episode that highlighted Malaysia's treatment of migrants in Covid-19 red zones during the movement control order period.
Responding to a query on the status of Al Jazeera staff summoned to Bukit Aman earlier today, the police chief clarified that all seven of them were questioned as witnesses and not suspects.
"All of you are free to report, but we also have laws. These laws are important to manage our multi-racial, multi-religious state.
"The laws are not difficult to follow [...] I have no issue in this matter, and PDRM will support freedom of the media," said Hamid who not only pledged his personal commitment but also of 10 department directors and their personnel.
"InsyaAllah, I will support media freedom exercised responsibly," he said.
Commenting further, Abdul Hamid said there were elements raised in the 25-minute episode which had touched on the sensitivities of Malaysians.
"In the case of this (Al Jazeera) report, I cannot say that many Malaysians are crazy.
"We investigated and found there were inaccurate facts [...] a tendency to paint the country in a bad light," he said.
Hamid said the decision to record statements from the Al Jazeera staff today was only made after consultation with the Attorney-General's Chambers that found possible elements under the Sedition Act, Penal Code and the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Act 1998.
"We were instructed to probe, so we called them in... they came as witnesses and not suspects.
"They answered some questions [...] we will complete our investigations and hand it over the AGC," he said, adding that the process will be completed as soon as possible. - Mkini
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