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Rally in Kuala Lumpur, journalists detained
by Joseph Masilamany
Police manhandled and detained 2 journalists who joined a peaceful assembly against road toll hikes, which came into effect on Jan 16th. The Centre for Independent Journalism denounce the incident.
Kuala Lumpur (AsiaNews) - The Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ) is concerned that the police manhandled a blogger during a peaceful assembly against road toll hikes. The police have also been accused of attempting to intimidate an online journalist covering the event. On Jan 21st, blogger Tan Han Kuo was at a highway toll protest just outside Malaysia's capital city of Kuala Lumpur to document an assembly against a recent increase in toll charges, which came into effect on Jan 16th. He told CIJ that almost as soon as he arrived, police used force to stop him from joining the protesters. He was then chased and beaten around his head before being arrested. Prior to the arrest, Tan told the police that he was at the event to take pictures and document the protest. Tan runs four blogs and is a resident of a nearby township affected by the closure of its only open access road, which allowed motorists to bypass the toll. He has been actively blogging about the protests against the road closure and is a member of the community's Open Access Road Committee. Police also detained Malaysiakini.com journalist Andrew Ong and asked to inspect pictures he had taken of the assembly. They returned his camera and released him after making copies of the pictures.Kajang Police Station ACP Rosli Mohd Nizam denied that police acted against people who were not part of the crowd and said that the police exerted force only against protesters who refuse to comply with the police's warning to disperse. CIJ president, Sonia Randhawa told Asianews she is concerned that the police are limiting the public's right to know about events by targetting bloggers and journalists, who were evidently present to document the protest. She said, people's right to assemble peacefully is guaranteed under Article 10 of the Malaysian Federal Constitution.