| By CT Hj Mahmod
While Brunei's state-run
agencies continue to support a liberal and independent media,
thus improving the good image of the nation, some commercial
interests seem to negate all that.
These interests with obvious
selfish motives sometimes cross the line to even intimidate and
threaten media persons.
For instance, on Wednesday
night, an officer of a local travel company allegedly threatened
a Borneo Bulletin journalist as she was talking to some tourists
in the lobby of the Empire and Country Club hotel.
Like a bolt from the blue, a
man claiming to be an officer from a travel agency accosted the
journalist for talking to tourists. The man, infuriated as he
was, butted into the scene asking the journalist to leave the
tourists alone. He allegedly told her that she has no business
to interview the tourists.
"You are only trying to
smear the good image of Brunei with your newspaper
reports," he blurted out.
Continuing the tirade and
aggravating more public humiliation, he also dared the
journalist to write any report saying that he will ensure that
she would not have a career in the country, and that he will sue
the Brunei Press to "its last penny".
|
