A response to Lim Guan Eng

Lying politicians are a dime a dozen, not only in Malaysia, but anywhere politicians can be found. Accusing them of lying is like accusing a priest of preaching. 

Indeed, lying is the trade of politicians. Look at how far it has gone for some of our politicians, at least for now.

It is another matter when a media outlet is accused of lying. Sure, there are untruths and propaganda spread through the media. 

But even the most "foxy" and opinionated of media outlets must ensure that whatever they carry can be proven to be based on facts. Otherwise, they should retract the report and perhaps apologise to redeem their credibility. 

Facts are the trade of the media. This means reporting truthfully and factually, which includes not putting words in the mouths of others. 

So when DAP chairman Lim Guan Eng accused MalaysiaNow of misreporting and twisting his speech, in which he raised the spectre of limits on religious and cultural freedoms if the "green wave" comes to power in Penang, we take it seriously. 

Any journalist worth his salt would know that our report was a rewrite based on another news outlet which we believe also subscribes to the principle of reporting only the facts. (Read our first report here.)

A rewrite simply means lifting a report from another news outlet and presenting it from a different angle, backed by quotes from the original. Often, this involves two outlets with different language mediums.

Why did we lift the report from another outlet? Simply because such important news deserves a larger audience beyond the Mandarin readership.

It did not take long for Lim to cry foul and to say that he had been misquoted. Interestingly, however, he did not deny raising the spectre of religious freedoms being trampled on. All he said was that he had not referred to Buddhist temples. 

While it would not change the seriousness of his prediction of houses of worship being destroyed and people having to shower fully clothed, he would still deserve a correction if he had been misquoted, even in one word.

China Press subsequently admitted that they had erred, and after "re-listening" to the recording of Lim's speech, amended Buddhist temples to "Indian temples". It also published verbatim Lim's speech in full.

MalaysiaNow also reported the amendment. And, in the interest of facts and truth, we carried a translation of this "verbatim" speech. (Read our second story here.)

Yet, this did not stop Lim from accusing MalaysiaNow of twisting his speech. He even had the audacity to demand an apology.

We strongly deny Lim's accusation that we mistranslated the quotes published by China Press, whether before or after the amendments.

This was also our stand to the Bukit Aman police when our statement was taken as part of an investigation into Lim's speech, first reported by China Press and later transferred to a larger audience by us.

In the end, the onus will be on China Press to prove whether they reported the truth or not. So far, they have not retracted anything other than the words "Buddha" and "temples". 

Likewise, the onus is on Lim to prove that MalaysiaNow has indulged in lies.

Otherwise, we know our options.

Abdar Rahman Koya is CEO & editor of MalaysiaNow.