KUALA LUMPUR: Transport Minister Anthony Loke has defended his aide Lim Swee Kuan following the latter’s criticism on Radio Television Malaysia (RTM) in a Facebook post recently.
Loke said the post was based on Lim’s personal feelings and should not be seen as an infringement on media freedom.
“It’s a question of why certain portions of the event were taken out if it was a live event. It is not about infringing media freedom.
“First, it is a government television station and the entire event was supposed to be broadcasted live.
“So why were certain portions taken out? Anyway, I do not want to pursue further,” he told reporters after the ground breaking ceremony of Railway Assets Corporation (RAC) Central Tower in Brickfields today.
Also present at the event were Deputy Transport Minister Datuk Kamarudin Jaffar, RAC general manager Azhar Ahmad and YTL Corporation Bhd managing director Datuk Yeoh Seok Hong.
On Sunday, Lim, who is Loke’s press secretary, took to his Facebook, asking whether RTM was sabotaging the government and said that an official letter would be sent to Communications and Multimedia Minister Gobind Singh Deo.
This came after RTM failed to broadcast the speeches by Loke and Negri Sembilan Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Aminuddin Harun at the Pakatan Harapan’s inaugural national-level Chinese New Year open house in Seremban which was also attended by Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.
Lim’s post, however, drew backlash as it was seen as threatening RTM.
Asked further if RTM might have their own agenda, Loke said: “We do not want to pre-empt anything or make assumptions on that.”
Loke, who’s also Seremban MP, added that he never gave any instruction (for Lim) to write the complaint on Facebook and would leave the matter to Gobind to investigate.
Yesterday, Gobind said RTM had been told to submit a report following the incident. The Puchong MP also asked RTM to list its standard operating procedure in handling requests for the station to cover an event.