By The Star
Malaysiakini has lodged a police report over the threat by Red Shirts leader Datuk Seri Jamal Yunos to hold a second protest outside its office today and cause a part of the news portal’s building “to fall”.
Petaling Jaya OCPD Asst Comm Mohd Zani Che Din confirmed that Malaysiakini representatives lodged a report at 3.51pm yesterday.
The Red Shirts had gathered outside Malaysiakini’s office on Thursday, with Jamal demanding an explanation by noon today on reports that the news portal receives funding from the Open Society Foundations (OSF) founded by American hedge fund billionaire George Soros.
“Otherwise, we will have a huge protest here and we will ensure that a part of this building will fall,” Jamal had said, adding that everyone was free to interpret the statement.
Gan said yesterday police had met with the portal’s management to discuss security.
The Inspector-General of Police had earlier yesterday urged Malaysiakini to lodge a police report.
“He (Jamal) has been making a lot of statements. But nothing comes of it,” Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar told reporters after launching the National Urgent Response (NUR) Alerts on Facebook at the Bukit Aman police headquarters here.
Gerakan Youth chief Tan Keng Liang said the police should investigate if a threat was made.
“I am not sure what he (Jamal) said, but the right thing to do is to allow the authorities to investigate this,” said Tan.
The National Union of Journalists Malaysia, in a statement, strongly condemned Jamal’s threat towards Malaysiakini and urged the police to conduct an investigation over the matter promptly.
PKR vice-president Tian Chua said the police must take action to prevent the Red Shirts from creating a disturbance to society.
Lawyer Amer Hamzah Arshad explained that the Red Shirts had no legal right to insist on any explanation from Malaysiakini or any other organisation.
“The act of going around issuing ultimatums to other civil societies is a form of misguided vigilantism and may be tantamount to criminal intimidation,” he said.
Lawyer Farhana Abdul Halim said that her client Bersih 2.0 chairman Maria Chin Abdullah reserved her right not to answer questions on claims that the group too received funds from OSF.
On Tuesday, a dossier said to contain 24 pages of confidential documents related to Soros and Bersih, was handed to the police by an NGO.
It was reported that the OSF has been funding several local groups allegedly to influence the outcome of the next general election.
