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Jailed journalist
regrets nothing This article is compiled from 13 Oct 1999 reports by the Agence France Presse and Reuters news agencies HONG KONG, Oct 13 - The only journalist for 50 years to
be jailed for contempt of court in a Commonwealth country was unrepentant
Wednesday as he spoke for the first time since his release from a Malaysian
jail.
"What happened to me is a shot across the bows for other journalists," Murray Hiebert, 50, said in Hong Kong after being freed Monday after a month in prison. "It's a warning that in Malaysia it's difficult for journalists to function." Hiebert, a correspondent with the Hong Kong-based Far Eastern Economic Review magazine, was found guilty by the High Court in May 1997 over an article headlined "See you in court", which discussed the merits of a suit filed by the wife of a Court of Appeal judge against the International School of Kuala Lumpur for dropping her son from the debating team. Hiebert's case attracted international concern, including criticism from US President Bill Clinton. Opposition leader Lim Guan Eng, who was freed from jail in August after a one-year term for sedition, called Hiebert "a hero in the eyes of Malaysians who are fighting for press freedom.'' Hiebert, who has not seen his wife Linda, 15-year-old son Jonathan or 18-year-old daughter Ann since they left Malaysia in July for the United States, said he was savouring freedom. "Just as I got out of the prison gate, my lawyer called up my son in Washington on a hand phone. I said, 'I'm out, I'm free,' and then I choked up,'' Hiebert said. "My son used the opportunity to say he wants a car.'' On Wednesday, Hiebert, a married father-of-two, said he stood by his article. "It's certainly true that Malaysia is a very litigious society. My company (Dow Jones) alone has 11 different suits filed against it at the moment for a total of one billion ringgit (263 million dollars). "I asked myself if the job was worth it. I concluded it's still an important job." Hiebert has lodged an appeal against his conviction which is due to be heard by the Federal Court by the end of the month. Despite Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's angry rejection of criticism of restrictions on press freedom, the Malaysian government was not united on the issue, he said. "Privately officials have expressed concern and sent messages of support," he said. "It alarmed them: it can't put them in a good light. "Most countries in Asia are moving towards a more open press but Malaysia seems to be moving in the opposite direction." As a result, he said, journalists in Malaysia were "more cautious". "We still try to tell the same stories, but we're a little more cautious with the language and detail we go into." Lawyer approval of articles was now the norm, he added. Hiebert, due to take up a posting in Washington this month, said he was treated comparatively well in the maximum security jail of Sungia Buloh, west of Kuala Lumpur, and minimum security Serebam, south of the capital. His possessions were two pairs of underwear, two prison issue shirts, two T-shirts, a toothbrush filed down to prevent it being sharpened to a knife and two pairs of shorts made by fellow inmates as, at over six feet (1.8 metres) tall, the jail ones did not fit. In Sungia Buloh, fellow inmates were typically rapists and murderers. In Serebam, they were mainly drug abusers and dealers. "Most prisoners just get a thin blanket and a concrete floor to sleep on, but they kept me in the sick bay in both and I got a bed," he said. "There were three meals a day -- boiled rice and vegetables -- and six roll calls a day. I could take showers from this concrete tub, I read books and censored magazines, I talked to other prisoners, I started learning Behasa, I did my laundry, I meditated. "I made some friends that will be friends for a long time and in a way I feel I now know my priorities a bit better." He continued: "But I lost my freedom. I was no longer in control of my own life. There was absolutely no privacy, and it was rather a sickening experience for writing an article about a debating team. "It's been a huge dark cloud over my family for two and a half years." After a month in dormitories with up to 40 other people, Hiebert also said freedom was proving a little unsettling. "I can't sleep," he said. "I lie there in my hotel bed thinking, 'Wow, I'm free'. Plus it's so quiet. I'm used to all these strange noises through the night." |
