Female reporter 'grabbed' by four male cops at rally

A female reporter was manhandled by four male police personnel at about 7.30pm, when she tried to photograph police personnel beating up protesters who were eating at a restaurant.

Merdeka Review reporter Chen Shaua Fui said the incident happened at Jalan Tun Perak.

“Police dragged out two people who were eating, arrested them and beat them up. I wanted to take a photo but was warned by police not to, so I didn’t.

“Then they went to another restaurant where two others were having their meal. The police asked them to take off their shirts, arrested and beat them. I wanted to take photos and that’s when they grabbed me,” she said.

Chen, who said she was the only journalist left there at the time, said that one officer had grabbed her right arm, another grabbed her left arm and another tried to snatch her bag.

“I was holding my camera in my right hand and mobile phone in my left hand. They tried to take my camera.

“They pulled off my media tag and kicked the tag away. At that point I was afraid they would arrest me as a protester even though I am a journalist, but then they just left,” she said.

She said the incident happened so fast that she did not see their names or unit numbers.

The Sun reporter warded with broken ribs

 Meanwhile, a reporter from The Sun newspaper has been warded with broken ribs and suspected internal injuries  following yesterday's rally.

According to colleague Alyaa Alhadjri, Radzi Razak is currently warded at Hospital Kuala Lumpur.

“When I left at 12.30am this morning, tests were conducted as it was suspected that he sustained internal injuries in his stomach,” she said when contacted.

It is still unclear how exactly he sustained the injuries, but Malaysiakini reporter Zulaikha Zulkifli said that a large group of police had charged to the area where Radzi was standing at around 5.30pm.

Radzi was said to be standing at the corner of Jalan Tun Perak and Jalan Raja Laut, while Zulaikha was at the corner of Jalan Tun Perak and Jalan Raja.

“I saw police go to where Radzi was. There were not many protesters there. Then I saw someone wearing white on the ground. An ambulance then stopped there,” she said.

Malaysiakini reporter Nigel Aw said when he arrived at the scene, Radzi was already on the ground and “barely conscious (and) surrounded by a lot of people”.

A photograph of him shows Radzi, who was wearing a white shirt, lying on his back and surrounded by medical officers. He was seen wearing his press tag.

Al Jazeera videoman ‘punched’

Meanwhile, Al Jazeera reporter Harry Fawcett said that he was “manhandled” by several uniformed police personnel when he had tried to capture what looked like police assaulting protesters.

He told Malaysiakini that a group of 10 to 15 police personnel surrounded him and Al Jazeera videographer Ray Jones at Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman.

“We saw two or three police officers hold a guy while another was kneeing him either in the face or in the chest, it wasn’t clear.

“When we went to record it, I found that we were surrounded by police who were extremely aggressive. They held my arm and gripped my shirt. When I turned around, the camera was on the ground,” he said when contacted.

He said Jones told him that he was “punched at the back of the head” by police personnel and the camera was “smashed” to the ground.

“The camera was wrenched from him and our wireless microphone and battery pack was taken. The camera was smashed to the ground, and we coudn’t take the tape out. It was inoperable,” he said.

Minutes before the incident, Fawcett and Jones were also stopped from recording another incident where police allegedly assaulted protesters, and were also stopped by police.

“A group of protesters tried to enter Dataran Merdeka... two or three police officers would hold one guy while another punched his body. We were about 100 metres away from the scene,” he said.

Others hurt during the rally were Malay Mail photographer Arif Kartono, reportedly assaulted by several uniformed police personnel and Al-Hijrah videographer Mohd Azri Mohd Salleh, reportedly assaulted by protesters.

At least two media personnel, including Malaysiakini's photojournalist Koh Jun Lin, were also arrested in what appears to be an unprecedented heavy-handedness on journalists by the authorities.

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