CIJ deplores the continued unthinking and reactionary demonisation of dissenting voices that continue to blight Malaysia’s democracy, which is worse still taken seriously by the police.

The Centre for Independent Journalism views the police order to Malaysiakini journalist Joseph Sipalan to surrender his notebook to them on 3 August 2011 as a serious breach of media freedom.

The Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ) condemns the federal government for not only repudiating the right to assemble peaceably of organisers and supporters of Bersih 2.0 – a movement campaigning for free and fair elections – but more dangerously, for actively drumming up public antipathy against the organisers and their planned rally on 9 July 2011 through the mainstream media, almost all of which is under state control.

The Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ) is disappointed at the sequence of events that has led to the resignation of Mohamed Ha’ta Wahari as National Union of Journalists (NUJ) president. Ha’ta reportedly said that he has resigned following the NUJ executive council’s decision that he could no longer be president since he was dismissed fromUtusan Malaysia.