Govt ‘not muzzling media’ - The Star

By Hah Foong Lian

LUMUT: Police probes into several newspapers for publishing the Royal Commission of Inquiry report on the V.K. Lingam video clip before it was made public is not aimed at curbing press freedom, Information Minister Datuk Ahmad Shabery Cheek said.

“The Government has the right to protect certain classified information before making a public disclosure,” he said Sunday after closing a Lumut Umno convention here, about 90km from Ipoh.

He said the commission was set up by the Government and that its findings would eventually be made public.

However, he said it would be proper for the findings to go to the Cabinet first before being made public.

He cautioned that there could be other government secrets such as matters pertaining to security and military that could have been leaked to the public.

“We don’t know where the leak is. It could be from the journalists who used their investigative intuition or the printers or the officers involved,” he said.

[More at http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/5/19/nation/21294909&sec=nation]