KUALA LUMPUR: Six individuals, including employees of international news agency Al Jazeera, were called in to Bukit Aman today in connection with a documentary it aired on July 3.
The six were summoned for questioning by a team probing the 25-minute-50-second documentary, said to feature inaccurate and malicious content painting a negative impression of Malaysia.
Federal Criminal Investigation Department deputy director (Investigation/Legal) Deputy Commissioner Mior Faridalathrash Wahid confirmed that among those who were summoned for questioning today were a journalist, editor and producer from Al Jazeera.
It is learnt that the six, who were accompanied by their lawyers, arrived at Bukit Aman at about 8.50am and declined to be interviewed.
The case is being investigated under Section 4 (1) of the Sedition Act 1948; and Section 500 of the Penal Code for publishing defamatory news; as well as Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 for misusing network services.
Five police reports were lodged against the news agency over the documentary, including by the Immigration Department and the police.
The programme, entitled 'Locked Up in Malaysia's Lockdown', explored the allegedly poor treatment of illegal immigrants in Malaysia during the Movement Control Order (MCO).
The Malaysian government has denied the allegations made in the documentary.