Sunday May 18, 2008
Govt advised to retract police report against media
KUALA LUMPUR: The Prime Minister’s Department should withdraw a police report made against several newspapers for publishing the Royal Commission of Inquiry report on the V.K. Lingam video clip before it was made public.
“The police report runs counter to the renewed pledge by the Prime Minister after the March 8 'political tsunami' for a more open, accountable and transparent society, including the promise to introduce a Whistleblowers Protection legislation,” said DAP national adviser Lim Kit Siang in his blog.
He said the Cabinet should keep abreast with international benchmarks where Royal Commission of Inquiry reports were simultaneously released to the public as they were submitted to the appointing authorities.
Bar Council Human Rights Committee chairman Edmund Bon said the police report was a blatant act of intimidation because the commission’s report did not fall under the category of “automatically classified secret” documents – unlike reports on Cabinet/state government deliberations or military intelligence.
“The Commission’s report comes under the Commissions of Enquiry Act, which is silent on whether it is subject to the Official Secrets Act (OSA) or not.”
It was reported yesterday that a senior official from the PM’s Department had lodged the report at the Putrajaya police headquarters.
Information Minister Datuk Ahmad Shabery Cheek said the Cabinet was surprised that the media had managed to get the report.
“It must be ascertained how the information was leaked,” he added.
In Kota Baru, PKR strategic planning director Saifuddin Nasution Ismail condemned the move to lodge the police report.
He said under the National Integrity Plan, media freedom was one of seven points to promote integrity.
The Machang MP said the Government should lodge a police report on the outcome of the commission’s findings and not about the media reporting it, unless there were gross inaccuracies in the media reports.
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