Thursday 18 Apr 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (May 18): Stressing that free media should prevail as promised in his coalition's election manifesto, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said he does not agree with police arresting a man who criticised him on Facebook.

“We want a free media,” said the Prime Minister. “The police took action against this man who wrote nasty things about me. That is not what we want the police to do. People want to say nasty things, they can.

“If I don’t like it, I can sue him as an individual but I cannot, on the basis of my authority, arrest people and things like that,” added Dr Mahathir in a media interview.

He was referring to a 32-year-old man who was detained in Langkawi after a non-governmental organisation lodged a police report against him over his posting about Dr Mahathir and the Bumiputera Malaysia Finance scandal.

The Prime Minister also said that in every country, there are newspapers which support one party or the other.

“During my time, (PAS publication) Harakah and (DAP newsletter) Rocket were distributed as proper newspapers. They were supposed to be distributed to their members only but they were sold but I did not stop it,” he added.

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