Malaysia blocks website critical of PM Najib Razak and scandal-plagued state fund 1MDB
Malaysian authorities have blocked access to a website critical of Prime Minister Najib Razak’s government for violating a local internet law.
Malaysian authorities have blocked access to a website critical of Prime Minister Najib Razak’s government, saying the British-based news portal had violated a local internet law in a move condemned by opposition lawmakers.
Sarawak Report, a website run by a British woman based in London, has been publishing reports and documents that allegedly include graft and mismanagement by the state investment fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) said the site had breached a law under the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998, prohibiting people from using a website to provide content "that is indecent, obscene, false, menacing, or offensive in character with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass any person".
"MCMC decided to block a website that could threaten the country’s stability, namely Sarawak Report, for publishing contents with unproven veracity and that are under investigation, after receiving complaints from the public," the commission said in a statement on Sunday evening.
The site’s editor Clare Rewcastle-Brown said it was "a blatant attempt to censor our exposures of major corruption".
"This latest blow to media freedom only brings further discredit upon the present administration, who have proven unable to counter the evidence we have presented in any other way," Rewcastle-Brown said in a statement.
