KUALA LUMPUR: Journalist Rex Tan has been detained by police for a sedition probe linked to a question he posed during a recent lecture on the Gaza conflict.
Tan, who resigned from news portal Free Malaysia Today yesterday, was taken into custody after midnight.
His lawyer, Rajsurian Pillai, told Malaysiakini that Tan had been summoned to the Dang Wangi police headquarters last night and is being held under Section 4(1) of the Sedition Act.
On Thursday, Tan apologised following public backlash over his question at the lecture titled Gaza Exposes the Complicity of International Actors, which featured United Kingdom politician George Galloway.
Tan has expressed regret for his poorly constructed question, which touched on race and was widely criticised as insensitive.
He said he did not intend to provoke any community, including Malays, Chinese, or Palestinians, and apologised for the tension caused among Malaysians.
Meanwhile, Malaysian Media Council vice-chairman Premesh Chandran said that while Tan may have made a mistake, detaining a journalist was excessive and punitive.
“He was prepared to cooperate with the investigation; detention was unnecessary,” he said.
Earlier, the council condemned the doxing, harassment, and intimidation directed at Tan following the incident.
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