Condemning the threat made by the Red Shirts against Malaysiakini, the union said Jamal had committed an offence under Section 503 of the Penal Code when he promised to make sure that part of the news portal’s office building “is torn down” should it fail to explain the grants it received from the Open Society Foundations (OSF).
These foundations belong to Hungarian-American billionaire George Soros who Jamal had earlier accused of being responsible indirectly for the deaths of thousands of innocent people through his deeds.
“NUJ is appalled to hear of this threat, especially in a democratic country like ours.
“The laws of this country clearly state that no one, group or organisation can take the law into their own hands, especially towards media practitioners who are held by the code of ethics for journalists,” NUJ said in a statement today.
Jamal yesterday led a group of about 100 Red Shirts members on a visit to Malaysiakini’s office in Petaling Jaya.
He demanded that the portal disclose its financial statements by tomorrow afternoon, failing which he would gather thousands of his men in front of the news portal’s office.
This followed a document leaked by notorious whistle-blower site DC Leaks which stated that Malaysiakini, along with electoral watchdog Bersih 2.0 and Merdeka Centre, had received grants from the OSF.
Jamal and other Barisan Nasional leaders have claimed that these grants were meant to topple the “democratically elected government” of Malaysia, prompting the formation of a police special task force to probe the grants.
Malaysiakini, however, has denied participating in such an agenda.