Since June 10, Malaysian police authorities have been investigating the KL office of Qatari state-owned broadcaster Al Jazeera over a 25-minute “controversial” documentary about the migrant workers in Malaysia.
Malaysian police announced an investigation of Al Jazeera staff over potential sedition, defamation and violation of the country's Communications and Multimedia Act.
On the morning of Aug 4, police officials along with officers from the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) raided the KL office and seized several devices relating to the documentary.
Titled Locked Up in Malaysia’s Lockdown, the documentary, has said to have received five complaints. The Malaysian government officials have claimed that the documentary did not accurately portray the treatment of migrant workers in Malaysia during the Movement Control Order (MCO).
In a June 10 article, Al Jazeera rejected the allegations made by the Malaysian authorities. It said that it stands by "the professionalism, quality and impartiality of its journalism", and warned of "serious concerns about developments that have occurred in Malaysia since the broadcast of the documentary".
According to Al Jazeera, while the documentary had focused on the plight of foreign migrant workers, it also highlighted Malaysia's success in containing the virus and the humanitarian efforts of Malaysian organisations to provide direct assistance to migrants in need.
Following the airing of the documentary, Malaysian authorities have also arrested and deported a Bangladeshi man who was featured. The migrant worker was said to have criticised the Malaysian government over its treatment of undocumented immigrants.
Over in Singapore, the government acknowledged and admitted a flaw in its foreign worker dormitories, which is the cause of spike in Covid-19 cases in the city state.
Since then, the government has ramped up its testing on migrant workers and expect to complete the testing by this month. The government has also said that it will work to improve the living conditions of migrant workers, but specifics have yet to be announced.
At a virtual press conference addressing the migrant worker situation in Singapore, deputy prime minister Heng Swee Keat said, ″Our priority has always been very clear right from the beginning, which is to protect our people in Singapore — whether they are Singaporeans or ... migrant workers here — and we expect that the measures that we take will affect our businesses, will affect our economy, will have costs but we are prepared for that.”
