FMT journalist quizzed by cops

K Pragalath | December 21, 2012

A journalist was questioned under Section 233 of the Communication and Multimedia Act 1998 for allegedly implicating a former minister with trafficking.

PETALING JAYA: Online journalist Teoh El Sen was today questioned under Section 233 of the Communication and Multimedia Act 1998 for allegedly slandering former home minister Mohd Radzi Sheikh Ahmad by implicating him in human trafficking.

Section 233 disallows improper use of network facilities or network service. If found guilty Teoh is liable to a fine not exceeding fifty thousand ringgit or a one year jail term or both.

Teoh, who is with FreeMalaysiaToday news portal, was questioned for 90 minutes by Inspector Nasrul Md Isa of the Commercial Crime Investigation Department in Bukit Perdana, Kuala Lumpur in connection with an article he wrote on Nov 23.

In the article, FMT revealed that Radzi is a director of a company – SNT Universal Corporation Sdn Bhd – that was being investigated by police for human trafficking related offences.

According to the Companies Commission of Malaysia (CCM) records show that Radzi became a director of SNT on May 17, 2011.

But Radzi, when contacted, denied that he was involved in human trafficking.

SNT is a government-appointed agent in the 6P amnesty programme. SNT is among more than 300 companies which were appointed by the government to handle the registration of illegal foreign workers in a bid to either legalise them or deported without punishment.

Police intimidation

Meanwhile the decision to investigate Teoh did not go down well with anti-human trafficking activists.

Selangor Anti-Human Trafficking Council (Mapmas) member Abdul Aziz Ismail expressed disgust with the police action.

“This is a clear cut case of 6P human re-trafficking. Bukit Aman should go after the perpetrators, not after the whistleblowers.

“(They should) investigate the case itself, but instead they are intimidating the people providing information.

“Do the enforcement agencies even understand what is human trafficking?

“The things that they are doing right now is so little and it’s because they are doing it for the sole reason of pacifying the international civil society community,” he said.