KUALA LUMPUR, March 15 – The deportation of two Australian journalists today will not affect Malaysia-Australia diplomatic ties, said Deputy Home Minister Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed. He said the journalist for other country need to bound to the law of the land which they are responsible to observe laws in any country they are in.
In this case, he said the two have to be particularly aware of the laws in Sabah and Sarawak, since the two states have different set of immigration laws. He said this when met at the parliament lobby today. He also dismissed claims that the Attorney-General’s decision not to charge the duo was due to a supposed “high-level” intervention.
“The duo had broken the law where they should have applied for a permit if they wanted to carry out media duties in Sarawak. However, that is the prerogative of the state government. We have no qualms about letting them into this country as tourists. We will decide on our actions if the situation calls for it. At least now they know that what they did was wrong,” he said when asked to comment on the move to deport the two journos.
The two Australian journalists who were detained over the weekend for trying to ‘aggressively’ approach Datuk Seri Najib Razak. Jazlan said the duo from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation — reporter Linton Besser and camera operator Louie Eroglu were deported at 10am today.
