The Malaysian police searched Al Jazeera's office in Kuala Lumpur and seized two computers less than a month after the country opened an investigation against the broadcaster over a report on undocumented migrants in Malaysia, Al Jazeera said in a press release
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 04th August, 2020) The Malaysian police searched Al Jazeera's office in Kuala Lumpur and seized two computers less than a month after the country opened an investigation against the broadcaster over a report on undocumented migrants in Malaysia, Al Jazeera said in a press release.
In early July, the Qatar-based broadcaster published the report titled "Locked Up in Malaysia's Lockdown," which showed that undocumented workers in Kuala Lumpur are on the brink of starvation and that the Malaysian authorities are arresting those without valid documents. Since then, Malaysian authorities have accused Al Jazeera of false reporting and urged the broadcaster to apologize to Malaysian citizens, while law enforcement officials have opened an investigation against the broadcaster over inciting violence, spreading fake news and violating the country's laws.
"Al Jazeera calls upon the Malaysian authorities to cease this criminal investigation into our journalists ... Conducting a raid on our office and seizing computers is a troubling escalation in the authorities' crackdown on media freedom and shows the lengths they are prepared to take to try to intimidate journalists," Al Jazeera English Managing Director Giles Trendle said, as quoted in the press release.
The broadcaster also said that its staff members and people interviewed in the report have faced death threats and abuse since the publication.
Moreover, Mohamad Rayhan Kabir, a Bangladeshi man who was interviewed by Al Jazeera as part of the report, has been detained in Malaysia and is facing deportation, according to Al Jazeera.
