Weak investigations, little political will

Reporters and photojournalists from the Tamil dailies have also had their share of threats, where in some cases they were harassed during the coverage of by-election campaigns and controversial meetings involving the community.

On 12 November 2007, a reporter M. Nagarajan with the Tamil-language daily, Malaysian Nanban, lodged a police report after receiving death threats for the stories he had written on Tamil schools. This was a week after his colleague in the southern Johor bureau, R. Raman was assaulted into a coma by unknown persons.

In an interview with CIJ, Malaysian Nanban editor M.S.Malayandy said he wasn't sure what the reasons for the attacks were but that the cases were reported to the press clubs. Again they were received with limited coverage across the media. The exceptions were the online news portal malaysiakini.com and indianmalaysian.com.

This points to another irony of the attention given to the assault in Permatang Pauh. As media of different languages and types and various senior leaders, including the Prime Minister joined the fray to condemn the assault, it is difficult not attribute the reaction to the the fact that the perpetrators are said to be opposition supporters linked to Anwar Ibrahim's National Justice Party (Parti Keadilan Rakyat- PKR).

By and large, real protection for journalists against physical threats remains dismal. Halim Berbar's memorandum may have prompted Nazri Aziz, Minister in PM's department, and opposition party leaders Lim Kit Siang and Lim Guan Eng to speak unanimously for pressmen safety and brought the agenda to the Cabinet, but the attention is largely focussing narrowly on the latest case. This is illustrated by the fact that there is no pressure on the police for their seemingly little action for the rest of the cases documented by CIJ, although a police report was lodged for each.

For the cases of the Malaysian Nanban journalists, there was no progress in the police investigations so far. When contacted, the police said they had questioned a few suspects but no arrests were made. While the cases drew the attention of international organisations like the Committee to Protect Journalists and the Reporters Without Borders, there was no follow up in the local media. When CIJ contacted the media organizations to enquire the progress of the cases or to request to speak with the victims, there is a discernible reluctance.