The Kuching Division Journalists Association (KDJA) and Commonwealth Journalists Association (CJA), Sarawak branch today accused Sarawak Report of indulging in gutter journalism, by twisting facts about journalists from Kuching and Bintulu visiting the Murum hydroelectric (HEP) dam project last week…
The journalists did not see any Penan manning the blockades as claimed by Sarawak Report on its website but instead saw an abandoned blockade site near the Murum dam.
KDJA and CJA.. stressed that it was not their concern where the Penans set up their blockades:
“In the first place, it was not even the aim of the trip to the meet the Penans at the blockade sites,” they said.
Ouch! talking about missing the big story. This supposed complaint came from journalists on the very day of the police swoop on the Penan blockade and arrests of the natives, including children. Yet, the journalists allegedly told the news agency Bernama that the blockade was “not their concern” when they got their rare access to the site just days before the police operation.
Benama has, of course, been drawn in to perform its usual propaganda role, quoting unidentified spokesmen for the Sarawak Journalist Association and Commonwealth Journalists Association, allegedly complaining about Sarawak Report’s comments on their failure to report on the Penan blockade during their recent paid-for and fully escorted trip to Murum Dam, courtesy of Sarawak Energy. Other journalists and visitors have been barred from the region by police.
Apparently, the 24 selected journalists reckoned that the Penan blockade was “not their concern”. They saw no blockade (they were carefully escorted round it) and this was not the purpose of the trip.
OUCH! just a few days later and the big news is that riot police are in the area rounding up those non-existant blockaders, including children!
As for the the Bernama claim that SEB did not make pejorative remarks about the Penan. If this is the case, how come their CEO Torstein Sjotveit is currently accusing these very Penan of ‘extortion of passers-by’, as they ask for donations to their campaign?