Media barred from entering Malaysian parliament as PAC questions 1MDB chief

Reporters who turned up at the parliament building to cover the interview with 1MDB president and CEO Arul Kanda Kandasamy in Kuala Lumpur were turned away. PHOTO: AFP

KUALA LUMPUR (THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - Malaysian parliament officials have barred the media from entering the building's compound as the Parliamentary Accounts Committee (PAC) questions the chief of the troubled Malaysian state investment firm 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) on Friday (Dec 18).

Reporters who turned up at the parliament building to cover the interview with 1MDB president and CEO Arul Kanda Kandasamy in Kuala Lumpur as early as 8am to report on the PAC session were told by guards there that they were under orders not to allow any media into the building.

As at 8.40am, one official said that no less than seven cars from the media had been turned away.

An official with the PAC confirmed that the session on Friday was not to be covered by the media, but the press could wait outside the gates.

Several reporters were seen loitering outside the gates at 8.45am.

The PAC has previously spent more than four hours grilling Arul on matters relating to the committee's ongoing probe into 1MDB.

1MDB, whose board of advisers is headed by Prime Minister Najib Razak, is at the centre of a multi-agency probe for amassing debts of RM45 billion (S$15 billion) in its first five years of operation and controversy over its management of funds.

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