KUALA LUMPUR, March 14 – The Malaysian Insider is to be shut down from midnight on Monday (Mar 14) “for commercial reasons”, the website’s editor said in a statement. The he statement read: “The Edge Media Group has decided to shut down The Malaysian Insider from midnight today, for commercial reasons. Perhaps it is fitting that we go offline at the start of the Ides of March.”
“We worked as impartial journalists to inform Malaysians and other readers so that they make informed decisions. We worked to make all voices heard in this marketplace of ideas. But our work in The Malaysian Insider has now come to an end in a Malaysia that more than ever requires more clarity, transparency and information,” its editor Jahabar Sadiq wrote.
In late February the popular news portal was suspended by the Malaysian government after it published a controversial article on corruption investigations into Prime Minister Najib Razak. The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission said it had acted on complaints and information from the public, barring the site under Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998. Section 233 covers “improper use of network facilities or network service”.
The Malaysian Insider later launched a mirror site named “The Malaysian Outsider”, as well as a backup website. The website had also been slammed in the past by ministers for posting allegedly speculative and defamatory content. Jahabar wrote that he won’t put down my pen, he won’t lay down my camera, he won’t shut up and he won’t be blinkered or turn a deaf ear to what goes on in Malaysia and the world. He in the statement urged all of the people to do the same.
Malaysian opposition leader Lim Kit Siang blamed the government, saying the closure was “another casualty in its long line of infamies”. “But to decent and thinking Malaysians, there can be no joy but immense sadness at the death of TMI, whose travails in the past eight years reflect the agonies and trials of Malaysia to become a normal democratic country. The battle for democracy, freedom, accountability and good governance must go on,” he said in a statement.
