THE Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) should not be doing the government’s bidding to suppress media freedom, Tasek Gelugor MP Wan Saiful Wan Jan said.

Wan Saiful, who is a Bersatu supreme council member, said MCMC should not be “an errand boy” of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.

“If this continues, the future is dark for press freedom in Malaysia ,” he said in a statement today.

He was referring to MCMC’s order to news portal MalaysiaNow to take down or amend two reports over a shouting match in Dewan Rakyat on Tuesday.

The commission said the news portal would face enforcement action if it failed to comply.

MalaysiaNow stood by its report.

Its editor Abdar Rahman Koya said the webstie would not cave to pressure and that it had merely carried out its duty to report on parliamentary proceedings for the public.

Wan Saiful said the MalaysiaNow reports reflected the events that had transpired in the lower house. 

He said MCMC appeared to be forcing the media to publish false reports. 

He hit out at what he called “the culture of intimidation” which he said was becoming more common under Communications and Digital Minister Fahmi Fadzil. 

“(Fahmi’s) not just threatening but going to the extent of interfering in editorials.” – September 21, 2023.