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‘I won’t put down my pen, I won’t lay down my camera, I won’t shut up’ says The Malaysian Insider editor as website announces it will close

The Malaysian Insider

Homepage of The Malaysian Insider today

The Malaysian Insider is to close down, marking another loss to Malaysia’s independent news media scene.

The bilingual website, which is owned by The Edge, is to bring to an end eight years of reporting on Malaysian current affairs for commercial reasons, the editor said in a Facebook announcement earlier today.

“I won’t put down my pen, I won’t lay down my camera, I won’t shut up and I won’t be blinkered or turn a deaf ear to what goes on in Malaysia and the world. And I urge all of you to do the same,” wrote editor Jahabar Sadiq in a post to his readers.

The news emerges three months after a leaked memo revealed that The Edge, which acquired The Malaysian Insider in 2014, had been hit hard after its publishing license was suspended following a report on alleged corruption involving government investment vehicle 1MDB.

The company planned to “re-centre our resources on our core business,” according to the January memo reported on by Singapore’s Straits Times, which led to speculation that The Malaysian Insider would later be sold or closed down.

The Malaysian Insider has also been blocked by the government in recent months, which observers link to its coverage of the 1MDB scandal.

In a Facebook post, Sadiq wrote today:

Goodbye readers from near and far, and those reading us in Malaysia despite the government block.

The Edge Media Group has decided to shut down The Malaysian Insider from midnight today, for commercial reasons. Perhaps it is fitting that we go offline at the start of the Ides of March.

I hope we have served you well since our first day of going live on February 25, 2008. And I hope others will continue to serve you in our absence.

We worked as impartial journalists to inform Malaysians and other readers so that they make informed decisions. We worked to make all voices heard in this marketplace of ideas.

But our work in The Malaysian Insider has now come to an end in a Malaysia that more than ever requires more clarity, transparency and information.

All said and done, I want to thank everyone of you in Malaysia, around the world, and those who have been with The Malaysian Insider from day one until now for your support, well wishes and criticism during these fantastic eight years and 18 days of The Malaysian Insider.

I won’t put down my pen, I won’t lay down my camera, I won’t shut up and I won’t be blinkered or turn a deaf ear to what goes on in Malaysia and the world. And I urge all of you to do the same.

And I shall always be the biggest fan of this news portal called The Malaysian Insider.

Goodbye.

The Editor

The website is to cease publication at midnight tonight.

The closure comes a fortnight after another Malaysian news site, The Rakyat Post, also announced it was to cease operations.

Malaysia ranks 147th in the Reporters without Borders Press Freedom index, and 20th among countries in Asia Pacific, listing below Bangladesh, Myanmar and the Philippines, but above Singapore and Pakistan.

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