Bersih to sue TV3 on 'RM3.2b from Soros' claim

Bersih has decided to sue TV3 for alleged defamation on the TV channel's claim that the electoral reform movement received RM3.2 billion from American financier George Soros.

"We have handed TV3 a letter of demand to ask it to retract and apologise, but it said it will not to do that, so we are proceeding with legal action," Bersih chief Maria Chin Abdullah told reporters in Kuala Lumpur today.

She said about a week prior to the Bersih 5 rally on Nov 19, TV3 broadcasted a news segment where it claimed the movement received RM3.2 billion from Soros, without attributing any source to the claim.

She said TV3 also did not seek Bersih's comment on the issue.

"We were not given the right of reply," she said.

Bersih sent its letter of demand to TV3 a few days before Maria was arrested under the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act (Sosma), on the eve of the Nov 19 Bersih 5 rally.

"They (the lawyers) had to wait till I came out (of detention) for further instructions, so I told them to proceed, since TV3 does not want to retract," Maria said.

Bersih filed the suit against TV3 at the beginning of this week, she said, and it is now waiting for a date to be fixed.

Interrogated on the donation

When she was detained under Sosma, Maria said, she was interrogated on whether Bersih's donation sum of RM2.6 million was part of the purported funding from Soros.

"No. All these are actually from the RM100 or RM1,000 that people give us… which we have announced and discussed in a press conference," she said.

Separately, in Suaram's 2016 human rights report, the civil society said that this was a relatively good year for freedom of assembly in Malaysia.

"There was a growing acceptance by government agencies that the public have a right to peaceful assembly.

"Rather than the usual hostile crackdown involving arrests and detention of activists and participants of an assembly, 2016 has been marked by reduced hostility between police on duty and participants of an assembly," the report states.

However, though there were no crackdowns on participants, Suaram noted that organisers were called in for questioning after peaceful rallies.

It also said that it was unfortunate the police and the Attorney-General's Chambers seemed to be relatively tolerant of the red-shirts, despite their clear intent to instigate violence throughout the Bersih 5 convoy drives.

The seven-week convoy was aimed at raising awareness on the Bersih 5 rally.