[ Laman Ehwal Semasa ReformIS ]
Date: 14 Sep 1999
Time: 06:18:49
Remote User: -
Malaysian PM urged to pardon jailed Canadian journalist
KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 14 (AFP) - International press groups Tuesday urged Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad to pardon a Canadian journalist jailed for contempt of court. In a letter to Mahathir, the New-York based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said it was "deeply dismayed" with the six-week imprisonment of Murray Hiebert.
Hiebert, 50, local bureau chief of the Far Eastern Economic Review, began his prison sentence Saturday after losing an appeal.
"We believe that no journalist should be jailed for what he or she writes," executive director Ann Cooper said in the letter.
"CPJ is particularly concerned that Hiebert's harsh sentence might be seen as a warning to journalists covering the politically charged trial of former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim, whose case has brought international scrutiny to Malaysia's judicial system."
Anwar, who was sacked and arrested last September and is now serving a six-year sentence for corruption, is currently being tried on sodomy charges. The trial was adjourned Friday when Anwar was hospitalised with suspected arsenic poisoning.
The CPJ urged Mahathir to pardon and immediately release Hiebert. It called for a "thorough and impartial investigation into Hiebert's prosecution to determine if there was any miscarriage of justice."
Provisions in Malaysia's legal code that allow journalists to be imprisoned for their work should also be eliminated, it added.
In a separate letter to Mahathir, Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontieres said Hiebert's sentence marked a "dramatic step back for press freedom in Malaysia where local journalists are already pushed to self-censorship."
It asked the premier to "personally intervene in order to ensure that Hiebert is immediately and unconditionally released."
US President Bill Clinton on Monday voiced "deep concern" over the case.
"Putting a journalist in jail for doing his job undermines the press freedoms that play such a critical role in building a democratic society," he said in a statement.
Mahathir has dismissed Clinton's concern, saying that the US leader was entitled to his opinion and he did not take it as interference.
"If he were to send troops here to release Hiebert, then I will call that interference. He hasn't done that. I think he is entitled to his opinion and I to mine," he told Malaysian daily The Sun.
Mahathir also defended the verdict, saying Malaysian judges were independent but took a swipe at the "American habit" of arresting and bringing foreign citizens to the United States for trial against international law.
"I don't think that arresting (former Panama president) Noreiga to bring him to the US to be tried under a law which Noriega is normally not subjected to is fair either," he said, adding he also "disliked the continuous bombing of Iraq."
Hiebert was found guilty by the High Court in May 1997 over an article headlined "See you in court," which discussed the merits of a pending suit filed by the wife of a Court of Appeal judge against the International School of Kuala Lumpur for dropping her son from the debating team.
The Appeal Court, in a judgment published on Tuesday, held that Hiebert chose to "venture periously" into contemptous areas in his report on the suit.
It said Hiebert "damaged the integrity and dignity" of the High Court in his report which was described as "unfair and unwarranted."
The Court said it cut Hiebert's jail term from three months to six weeks because he regretted his action and was a first offender.
The journalist is expected to serve only a month, with a one-third remission, lawyers said.