COMMENT | Sept 13 was a dark day for journalism - two editors of The Edge face charges under little-used provisions for criminal defamation in the Penal Code while the group editor of the New Straits Times (NST) was reportedly “culled” following alleged interference by Umno.

These two incidents are an affront to the free and fair functioning of the press in Malaysia which is already beleaguered by a host of laws against it, such as the Official Secrets Act, the Printing Presses and Publications Act, the Sedition Act, and the Communications and Multimedia Act, amongst others.

The avenue of criminal defamation against journalists represents another reprehensible means used by the authorities to control reporting by the media while the ownership of media by political organisations or people connected to them results in an inordinate control of media groups such as the NST and The Star.

Journalists have to routinely grapple with such constraints when they go about their work and independent media such as Malaysiakini have been harassed by the authorities and legal action taken against them for merely doing their job.

All of them deserve the support not only of all journalists and media organisations but the public too, for without their efforts, wrongdoings cannot be unearthed, keeping the country in the dark about many important things, such as 1MDB.

The free press is a vital arm of the democratic...