KUALA LUMPUR – Local news portal MalaysiaNow (MNow) has officially ceased its operations effective today, citing funding problems as the main reason.
It is understood that the portal’s investors have withdrawn their financial support, leading to its closure after three years of operating in the local media landscape.
The move has reportedly affected 14 employees in total.
In a letter to the employees, the management also took a swipe at the government citing “threats on independent media” as one of the reasons for its closure.
It may be referring to the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) which had called for cooperation from news outlets to contribute to a more informed and balanced public discourse, free from misleading information and manipulation.
Recently, MCMC has asked the portal to remove a September 19 report on recent Parliament proceedings where the opposition staged a walkout, in which the authority claimed did not correctly depict the context of events in the House.
MNow, however, published a response declining to comply with the request. No further action was taken by MCMC after that.
A look at its website shows that the last article published on the news site was dated October 6.
Efforts by Scoop to contact MNow’s chief executive officer Abdar Rahman Koya, and news editor Amin Iskandar, have been unsuccessful as of press time.
However, a former employee of the portal confirmed the shutdown through a post on his social media account.
The former staff writer said that all employees of the company were laid off due to financial constraints faced by the company.
According to him, termination letters were issued to all employees one week prior, with October 10 being the official termination date.
Sharing an image of a portion of the document, the former employee expressed his disappointment at being laid off, raising questions about his future in the journalism industry.
First launched on September 20, 2020, the news site – comprising a small team of journalists – aimed to “break the news down for our readers so that critical issues that affect them are analysed and debated without being clouded by the partisan politics that have for so long characterised our national psyche.”
However, the news site had grown a reputation for its editorial slant and alleged ties with Perikatan Nasional, especially Bersatu.
During a press conference on November 9 last year, PKR deputy president Rafizi Ramli, had chastised MNow as a “mouthpiece” for Bersatu leader Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali.
Rafizi’s remark came after a journalist from the portal asked him why he had sought public donations in 2018 for a defamation case during a press conference that touched on Rafizi’s non-profit think tank, Invoke. – October 10, 2023