Church mulls legal action against Utusan for false reporting
By Debra Chong, The Malaysian Insider
Bishop Antony Selvanayagam said Utusan Malaysia lied about the Penang Catholic Church’s role in an alleged plot to make Malaysia Christian, adding he will consult a lawyer to discuss legal options against the Umno newspaper.
The cleric said neither he nor the Catholic Church were aware of any Christian meeting taking place in Penang as reported by the Malay newspaper, which also said yesterday the meeting was to discuss changing the country’s highest law to put a Christian in place of a Muslim as prime minister.
“That report is not true. No such conference took place in any Catholic church or facility here. As bishop, I would know,” he told The Malaysian Insider when contacted last night.
“That is false reporting,” Selvanayagam said, adding that neither Utusan nor any other person, apart from The Malaysian Insider, had contacted him to verify the report before its publication or since.
Asked if he planned to take action against Utusan Malaysia, he said, “Immediately, I would not be able to say. I would need to consult the Catholic Church and my legal advisor.”
In the front-page article headlined “Malaysia negara Kristian? (Malaysia a Christian country?), the Malay daily reported that “Malam ini pula akan diadakan satu majlis di Pusat Kristian (Katolik) Pulau Pinang di sini dan satu ceramah perdana pula dianjurkan esok. Pertemuan itu dikatakan dianjurkan setiap tahun”.
[In English: “Tonight there will be a function at the Penang Christian Centre (Catholic) here and the inaugural lecture will take place tomorrow. The convention is organised every year.”]
