Shutting down The Edge will not help

So, it has come to this,

The Edge gets show-cause letter

That's for reporting on the 1MDB mess.

excerpts:

“It was sent on Monday, and we are waiting for the reply,” the spokesman said, but declined to disclose which news article the ministry had highlighted in the letter.

Last week, Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had warned The Edge and its owner, Datuk Tong Kooi Ong, that publishing permits issued to the media group can be revoked over news reports concerning 1MDB, as leaked information on the government investment arm might have been tampered with

I'm no fan of The Edge or its little brother The Malaysian Insider but I don't believe in shutting down a news outlet because we don't like what was being reported.

Malaysia is after all a free democratic country, supposedly.

If we want to shut down news outlets for misreporting, I think all newspapers and televisions stations, portals, blogs etc would have to be shut down.

Everyone misreported at one point or another.

Maybe there are those who will argue that The Edge was being malicious by publishing the offending article, but can they prove it in court?

If we allow The Edge to be shut down over this, what do you think will stop the closure of others, whenever an article deemed not good for the powers that be is being published?

What if Barisan Nasional losses the next general election and those taking over decide to shut down all news outlets they deemed as misreporting in favor of BN.

Do we really want that?

They can use the same argument.

For instance:
TV3 maliciously misreported at the behest of BN that Guan Eng is not handsome, causing all Chinese girls not to vote for DAP, thus lowering the chances of DAP taking over the country and therefore harming Malaysia as a whole. Therefore, permit revoked.

How's that?

Guan Eng being himself, I think he may actually take such crazy action if he has the power.

But at the moment, it's Zahid Hamidi the Umno's Home Minister who is the one doing it.

Or, is he doing that just to jockey for position at the top of Umno hierarchy.

Zahid the no nonsense brave guy. That won him lots of votes in the last Umno election in 2013.

Well, Zahid should consider this,

Possible action against Edge could affect investors’ sentiment

He should also consider that the moderate image of PM DS Najib Razak will be affected if his administration closes down a news outlet such as The Edge.

I think even a limited punitive action such as a week suspension will backfire.

People at The Edge will become heroes and its circulation will dramatically increase.

That's exactly what happened to The Malaysian Insider when they recently put three of its editors in the lock-up for a night for a report on hudud.

I heard their hits quadrupled after that.

I think the authorities need to be smart on this.

It's also not an issue to be exploited for personal gains.

Maybe news outlets friendly to BN could be employed to counter whatever "lies" being reported by The Edge.

I think that would be a better way to deal with the situation then shutting The Edge down.

Of course, the BN-friendly news outlets must establish themselves as being credible first before they can go into the fight.

They shouldn't be seen as some sorts of a "dictator's diary" if they want to counter a rival such as The Edge.

By the way, I think you all know which newspaper to read if you want to know what the PM was doing for the day.

Putting three or four pictures of the PM in your newspaper per day is not going to help him, okay.