PKR leaders, members told to respect freedom of press, journalists

KUCHING: Leaders and members of Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) have been advised to respect the freedom of the press and journalists.

PKR Betong division chief Vernon Kedit said at the very least journalists should be treated with respect and dignity.

Vernon was commenting on the incident during PKR elections at a hotel in Sibu yesterday where Dayak Daily reporter Nancy Nais claimed that she was manhandled by an election supervisor at the election centre while she was taking videos and pictures.

Nancy claimed that a man in red shirt with the "pengawas" tag suddenly grabbed her upper right arm and forced her out of the room towards the hotel's lift.

Nancy said she had lodged a police report yesterday at the IPD One Stop Centre in Kuching.

"I on behalf of the party apologise to Nancy Nais for what had happened to her and I would like to tell her that the party doesn't represent such thing," he told reporters.

He said the person involved needs to apologise to Nancy and come out with a statement on why he had acted as such.

"Of course it is wrong and should not have been done in the first place," he said and urged his colleagues in PKR to respect the freedom of the press and the media and treat all journalists with respect.

Meanwhile, Sarawak PKR chairman Baru Bian in his whatsApp reply yesterday had advised Nancy to lodge a police report on the incident, adding that PKR does not condone such actions.

Meanwhile, Vernon led a group of PKR members to lodge another report with Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) on vote-buying in PKR elections.

They arrived at the MACC office here at 9.15 am.

Speaking to reporters outside the MACC building before lodging the report, Vernon showed to reporters a pen drive which he claimed contained evidence of vote-buying.

"We now have incontrovertible evidence that vote-buying occurred on Saturday Nov 10 in Julau, adding to the mountain of evidence already available that fraud and various criminality have taken place," said Vernon.

"In this tiny thumb drive is explosive and shocking evidence that blatant and unbridled corruption occurred rampantly in Julau on November 10," he said, adding that "the details are sickening and the modus operandi is disgusting, to say the least."