COMMENT Home Minister Zahid Hamidi is way off the mark by going after the media over the disclosures surrounding the 1MDB scandal. It is the job of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak to explain to the public his (mis)handling of the mother of all scandals and not for Zahid to try to protect him.

Neither is it the job of the media to defend itself over the political correctness of such disclosures. The media is duty-bound to inform the public in a timely manner after reasonable attempts to verify the information so received about 1MDB.

The fact that state or party-controlled mainstream media have chosen to cover up the 1MDB scandal involving debts of RM42 billion while the independent media have pursued it vigorously, is no excuse for Putrajaya to silence professional and robust journalism.