KUALA LUMPUR – A PAS lawmaker revealed in the Dewan Rakyat today that party organ Harakah’s media accreditation has been revoked by the Information Department.
PAS information chief Ahmad Fadhli Shaari (Pasir Mas-PN) said the publication had received a letter from the department today notifying it of the matter.
“I accepted the prime minister’s reprimand earlier this morning regarding the article by Harakahdaily (Harakah’s online portal), but today, they received a letter from the Information Department (on) retracting media (accreditation) cards from their reporters.
“This is something Harakah has never experienced before,” Fadhli said during his debate on the Supply Bill 2024 at the committee level in Parliament.
Before Fadhli could elaborate on the matter, RSN Rayer (Jelutong-PH) interrupted his speech to question if PAS had “settled its debts”, believed to be referring to how PAS had yet to pay the former printers for newspaper Harakah.
In response, Fadhli said the matter is being discussed in court, adding: “I don’t understand how Jelutong (Rayer) became a lawyer. Where did you take your SPM? Which school did you go to?”
After a brief shouting match, Dewan Rakyat Speaker Tan Sri Johari Abdul issued a first warning to Rayer.
A source confirmed with Scoop that the publication’s chief editor has been served a letter from the Information Department dated November 6.
The source added that the agency has yet to respond to the letter, which informed the publication of its media accreditation revocation and called on employees to surrender media tags issued by the department.
Earlier today, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim (Tambun-PH) slammed Harakahdaily for a rude and slanderous graphic questioning his stance on the Israel-Palestine war.
Reiterating the many occasions when Malaysia had strongly opposed Israel and supported Palestine, Anwar said Harakahdaily had been “biadap” (rude) and was propagating “fitnah” (slander) with its article yesterday that used a graphic placing him in front of the Israeli flag.
The article’s headline questioned if Malaysia under Anwar’s leadership was being “careful” about supporting Palestine.
A check on Harakahdaily’s portal showed that Anwar’s photo had been removed from the graphic following his statements in Parliament. – November 7, 2023