Day: March 23, 2016

Amnesty International pleads lifetime jail instead of gallows for Taiping convict

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Source: The Malay Mail Online

Amnesty International Malaysia has condemned the impending ‘last minute’ execution of Gunasegar Pitchaymuthu scheduled for March 25, 2016. — File pic

Amnesty International Malaysia has condemned the impending ‘last minute’ execution of Gunasegar Pitchaymuthu scheduled for March 25, 2016. — File pic

KUALA LUMPUR, March 23 — Amnesty International Malaysia condemned today the “last minute” execution of Gunasegar Pitchaymuthu scheduled for this Friday, calling it a violation of human rights.

The human rights watchdog claimed that the prisoner’s family was notified only this week that he is to be hanged on Friday and was unaware of it a week ago, which was a violation of human rights.

“The mother, Nagarani Sandasamy, had visited Gunasegar last week, and both were unaware that the 34-year-old was scheduled to hang just a week later,” the body’s executive director Shamini Darshini said in a statement today. Read more →

Government should embrace the Internet, not impose more restrictions to stifle news portals and blogs ― Lawyers for Liberty

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Source: The Malay Mail Online

MARCH 23 ― Lawyers for Liberty views with extreme concern the Communications and Multimedia Ministry’s proposal for online news portals and political blogs to be registered with the government, thus effectively restricting further the ever-shrinking democratic space in the country.

The fact that Minister Salleh Said Keruak distinguishes between political and non-political blogs for registration is extremely telling that the real purpose for the registration is to quell critical and dissenting news and views against the government.

We also note with extreme concern that such underhanded tactics are not new, as in the recent past, The Edge, The Malaysian Insider, Malaysiakini, Sarawak Report and other independent press and blogs had been targeted with investigations, arrests or blocks on the Internet while pro-government press like Utusan Malaysia and blogs have been allowed to publish freely.

There are no good and valid reasons for registering news websites and blogs other than an attempt to control news and information critical of the government. Such behaviour is undemocratic, a grave abuse of power and in breach of the ‘no-Internet-censorship’ policy which is protected in both the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 and MSC Malaysia’s Bill of Guarantees. Read more →