The lawyer said she was not informed of the reasons that led to the cancellation. — Picture by Choo Choy May

IPOH, June 4 — Communications and Multimedia Minister Gobind Singh Deo today instructed national news agency Bernama to clarify why an interview with activist Siti Kasim was cancelled at the eleventh hour.

In a Twitter posting , the Puchong MP said that Bernama has to issue a statement immediately and explain its reasons for cancelling the scheduled interview

“Reasons must be attached on why the interview is cancelled,” he tweeted at 5.39pm today.

Siti had earlier today in her Facebook posting informed her followers that the live show, scheduled today at 3.30pm, was cancelled.

BERNAMA perlu mengeluarkan satu kenyataan dengan segera memberikan penjelasan berkenaan dengan perkara ini dengan alasan alasan kenapa temubual itu dibatalkan. https://t.co/UInymUzDm9 https://t.co/UInymUzDm9 — GobindSinghDeo (@GobindSinghDeo) June 4, 2018

The lawyer said she was not informed of the reasons that led to the cancellation.

“I really don’t know who pulled the plug on the interview. This is exactly the challenge we still face. I would think the person or persons must be pretty high in the chain of command either at Bernama or at the Ministry of Communication & Multimedia — editorial freedom be damned,” she wrote.

Her post was also attached with screenshots of posting purportedly made by a Bernama personnel who objected to the agency inviting Siti for the talk titled “New Malaysia: Challenges & Reforms”.