Malaysia Threatens Lawsuits Against Media Disinfo

Transport and Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said on Twitter that the country’s attorney general had been instructed to “compile evidence and advise’’ on possible legal action. Wild and wacky disinformation plus other damaging reports are being spread.

“We have been compiling all the false reports since day one,” Mr Hishammuddin said, according to  the Malay Mail newspaper. “When the time is right, the government should sue them.’’

The MH370 and its clone crisis put Malaysia’s long-ruling government, that has a reputation for gagging its own mainstream press, in the unaccustomed position of having to answer tough questions from reporters.

The potential lawsuits emerged as Malaysian officials were finally able to release the official transcript of the last conversation between the cockpit of flight MH370 and air traffic controllers before it vanished. Mr Hishammuddin said the transcript showed nothing awry before the pilot or co-pilot delivered the final words: “Good night, Malaysian three seven zero.”

Australian and International Pilots Association president Nathan Safe agreed tonight the transcript appeared “completely benign.”

“There is absolutely nothing in the transcript that even hints at being unusual to me,” he said. “It all looks normally to me. The whole ‘goodnight’ part is totally innocuous. I’ve said it a hundred times myself. Not even 1 per cent of its contents would raise suspicion for me.”

The fruitless search is ongoing in the southern Indian Ocean – with the exception of where data shows the plane could be or could have at least refueled without being announced or reported – at Diego Garcia.

Mr Hishammuddin, who has run the government’s near-daily briefings on the situation, “was forced to deny various anonymously-sourced reports revealing details of Malaysia’s investigation into the March 8 disappearance of MH370 with 239 people aboard,” the News.com.au reports.

On Monday, he aimed at the British tabloid the Daily Mail, that over the weekend quoted a “source close to the family’’ of pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah saying police had learned he was emotionally unstable before the flight amid alleged marital trouble – that took the internet by a storm.

“I can confirm to you that the information did not come from the police and you should ask Daily Mail how they get the information,’’ Mr Hishammuddin said when asked about the report.

In a Facebook comment reported by local media, Zaharie’s daughter Aishah Zaharie accused the Daily Mail of “making up’’ the report.

The Daily Mail reported earlier that Zaharie was said to be a fanatical supporter of Malaysia’s political opposition. Friends and acquaintances have denied that, too. In fact, it seems everyone who knew Zaharie has had remarkabe respect for him, his professionalism and his compassion demonstrated in his human rights advocacy.

Suspicions have fallen on Zaharie, 53, and his co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid after Malaysian officials said the plane was believed to have been deliberately diverted by someone with flying knowledge.

Nothing has emerged to suggest either had any motive to go rogue, while there has been a trove of information suggesting the plane was remotely hijacked, as speculated by numerous highly respected officials and other experts with aviation and military specialties.

Malaysia’s independent web-based news organisations are largely unfettered due to a promise by the government in the 1990s not to censor the internet.  Reporters say, however, they are routinely harassed or blocked from government press briefings. Malaysian reporters are not as persecuted as they are in many countries, such as the United States.

In the US, press freedom is all but dead among corporate media that spin what the government wants them to convey. [See: Islanders Sabotage MH370 Black Op]

In the US, independent sources of news reports are routinely hacked while people like Edward Snowden, Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning are exiled for truth reports.