From Malaysia Kini

The National Union of Journalists Malaysia (NUJ) has urged the government to appoint a parliamentary select committee to get public feedback before amendments to the Internal Security Act (ISA) are debated in parliament.

Amendments to the act should not confined to a small group, said NUJ general secretary V Anbalagan in a statement today.

“As an interest group, the NUJ was not invited to any discussion by the Home Ministry nor its opinion sought,” he said, citing the detention last year of a journalist for 18 hours over an article.

He was referring to Sin Chew journalist Tan Hoon Cheng who was detained last year.

He said that as the NUJ had no idea of the content, it was in no position to support or reject the amendments.

Last Thursday, Home Minister Hishammuddin Tun Hussein said amendments to the Internal Security Act (ISA) 1960 would be tabled and debated at the next sitting of the Dewan Rakyat.

Hishammuddin said that following the public meetings and discussions with the target groups, the law review technical committee was in the final stages of studying all the views and suggestions presented during the sessions before the amendments were tabled in Parliament.