UPDATED 1.44PM | Added Coalition of Press Freedom Monitoring in Southeast Asia’s comments in support of Malaysiakini’s journalists.

Former minister Zaid Ibrahim slammed the Royal Malaysia Police for alleged harassment of three Malaysiakini journalists over an article claiming that the Bukit Aman federal police headquarters is planning a major reshuffle of its top leadership.

In a post on X this morning, Zaid said a mere denial of the report would do, rather than a criminal investigation against the journalists for doing their jobs.

"It's not right to harass journalists this way...