Malaysian Artistes Association lodges police report over Mediacorp's Najib skit

The Straits Times
April 7, 2017

The Malaysian Artistes Association (Seniman) on Friday (April 7) lodged a police report over a recent Mediacorp comedy segment in which the participants poked fun at Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak.

The association's president, Zed Zaidi, lodged the report at the Dang Wangi District Police headquarters in the Malaysian capital.

Speaking to reporters later, Zed Zaidi said Seniman viewed the incident seriously and hoped that the authority would act sternly to ensure that such an incident would not recur.

He said even though the television station and the show's celebrity host Najip Ali, who was one of the participants in the segment, had apologised, the four other guests and the host of the programme had yet to do so.

"Seniman will take this issue to the higher authority to ban those involved from entering Malaysia.

"If possible, we will try to reduce inflow of foreign artistes to Malaysia, so that more opportunities will be given to local artistes," he said.

Mediacorp Channel 5 and Najip had apologised last week for the segment, which was aired on March 29 during the OK Chope! programme.

Najip, 50, said in a statement released through Mediacorp: "In hindsight, our comments were in poor taste and offensive. Those of us who participated in the show regret the episode and are truly sorry to those we have let down."

The Malaysian media had reported that viewers there were offended by comments made on March 29's episode of OK Chope!, during which a panel of comedians gave impromptu humorous takes on current affairs.

According to The Star, Najip was one of the panellists who were asked to fill in the blank to complete the sentence "Najib slams… for threatening Malaysia's progress".

Mediacorp subsequently pulled the episode from repeat telecast.

Malaysia's Foreign Ministry had taken note of the apology made by Mediacorp and Najip, according to Malaysian press Bernama.

The Straits Times

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