Highlight Fz.com print licence issue gets Obama's attention

by **Cals** Tue 29 Apr 2014, 22:12

Highlight Fz.com print licence issue gets Obama's attention

Business & Markets 2014

Written by Terence Fernandez, fz.com (contributor to theedgemalaysia.com)

Tuesday, 29 April 2014 11:00

Last Updated: 7:05am, Apr 29, 2014

PETALING JAYA (April 29): The revocation of fz.com’s print licence by the Home Ministry has even reached the ears of US President Barack Obama.

Bar Council president Christopher Leong told fz.com last night that in a meeting between Obama and civil society representatives on Sunday, the US president was briefed on media freedom and the use of the Printing Presses and Publications Act (PPPA).

“I told Obama that the PPPA was intended to control print and prevent popular online news portals from getting a print licence,” Leong said in a telephone interview.

Leong said the predicament of fz.com which had its licence first approved and then revoked, as well as Malaysiakini which was refused a print licence despite a High Court ruling otherwise, were used to illustrate the clampdown on the press in Malaysia.

“We also brought up the recent unfounded and unjustified indefinite suspension of news weekly The Heat,” Leong said, adding that Obama shook his head when pointed out that there was a contradiction in terms.

“Indefinite means permanent. Suspension means temporary, so which is it?”

(Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi in a written reply to Parliament on May 27 said the permits were rejected as “it may be seen that the news published may have the tendency to be sensationalised and controversial to attract the readers”.)

Leong said Obama was intrigued and wanted to know “how does the PPPA work?”

“We explained the process and the history that previously it was annually renewable at the discretion of the Home Ministry.

“But the (2012) amendment removed the need for annual renewal – albeit the Government still reserved the right to revoke the licence at any time,” he said.

Leong said as a lawyer himself, Obama immediately understood the scenario.

Sedition Act to quell dissent

Leong also elaborated on his discussion with Obama on the use of the Sedition Act to quell opposing views from civil society and the opposition.

“As lawyers we spoke the same language and he was also in civil society.

“He completed my sentence to say these repressive laws are used to ‘stifle freedom of expression and speech,’" said Leong.

Leong said Obama also seemed bemused when briefed on the Freedom of Assembly Act which supposedly allows freedom of assembly.

“I pointed out to him that it was ironic that people were charged and convicted under the Act for organising peaceful assemblies!”

“I also told him that detention without trial laws are not for the purposes of terrorism but to be used on Malaysian on the pretext of fighting crime,” said Leong who joined the likes of Human Rights Society (Hakam) representative Datuk S. Ambiga; Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) commissioner Tan Sri Hasmy Agam and Bersih 2.0 Chairman Maria Chin Abdullah, among others, at Sunday's hour-long talk with Obama at the Ritz Carlton Kuala Lumpur.

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