Julie Bishop says she will raise issue with Malaysian government after ABC journalists arrested while attempting to question Malaysian PM Najib Razak about corruption scandal

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Australia has contacted the Malaysian government after an ABC Four Corners crew trying to question its prime minister over a corruption scandal was detained by police.

“We are deeply concerned about this. We are providing consular support to the ABC crew and we are certainly raising the issue at the appropriate level within the Malaysian government,” the Australian foreign minister, Julie Bishop, told reporters in Fiji.

“I’m always concerned where there are instances of a crackdown on freedom of speech in democracies particularly and I’m also concerned about the freedom that journalists have to carry out their work in places around the world, so these are matters that we raise with governments from time to time and we certainly will with Malaysia

“We will do what we can to get to the bottom of this issue and make representations at the highest levels within the Malaysian government.”



The ABC reporter, Linton Besser, and the camera operator, Louie Eroglu, were arrested in the city of Kuching on Saturday night after approaching Razak on the street, the ABC reports.



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Both were released without charge on Sunday but have been told not to leave the country. Their passports were seized but later returned.

A police statement obtained by the AFP news agency said they had been held after they crossed a “security line and aggressively tried to approach the prime minister”.

The program’s executive producer, Sally Neighbour, said on Twitter the arrest was related to the crew’s reporting of corruption allegations involving Razak. She tweeted that the pair were “doing what journalists do in countries with a free press”.

“There was no breach,” she wrote. “In a democracy, journalists asking the PM questions is routine.”

The Malaysian news agency Bernama quoted the national police chief, Khalid Abu Bakar, as saying officials would discuss with the attorney general’s chambers whether to charge the pair.

Najib has been under fire over allegations more than A$1bn was deposited into his personal bank account.