KUALA LUMPUR – The Man on the Run documentary has become a “trial by media” for former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, says Umno Youth.
In condemning the two-hour documentary, wing chief Dr Muhamad Akmal Saleh also deemed the film as being biased against the former Umno president.
“The documentary is a form of trial by the media against Najib, and the production team behind it seem to have malicious intent on creating a negative perception of Najib.
“The statements made by parties in this documentary are an insult to the ongoing court proceedings. So, Umno Youth is urging the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) to instruct Netflix to take down the documentary from its platform,” he said in a statement today.
“If any individual has not been proven guilty in court, it is wrong for any party to accuse anyone of being guilty.”
Earlier today, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim told the media to let the relevant authorities do their job in considering matters regarding the documentary.
This morning, Najib’s lead counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah was reported to have sent a letter to Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil urging for the documentary to be taken down from Netflix.
The letter was sent yesterday to Fahmi, MCMC chairman Tan Sri Mohamad Salim Fateh Din and MCMC chief regulatory officer Datuk Zulkarnain Mohd Yasin.
It was also sent to Attorney-General Datuk Ahmad Terrirudin Mohd Salleh, the Kuala Lumpur Courts Complex and the deputy public prosecutor’s office at the AG’s Chambers.
Shafee, in the letter sighted by Scoop, also urged the Communications Ministry and its agency, MCMC, to take action against director Cassius Michael Kim and the production crew with provisions under Section 211 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998.
Shafee claimed his client had been misled throughout his interview during the making of the contentious documentary, despite the director’s assertions that the former prime minister was well aware of his responses.
Kim then hit back, dismissing Shafee’s claims of disagreements among crew members about the documentary’s direction and that a crew member was fired.
Najib, who was interviewed for the documentary on April 3, 2022, appears in snippets after the first hour of the two-hour film. – January 12, 2024