KUALA LUMPUR: Several hundred pro-government demonstrators protested outside the office of a media group on Saturday, calling for it to be shut down after reports that it received funds from an organisation linked to the business tycoon George Soros.
The largely Malay group, which calls itself the "Red Shirts", has alleged that foreign funds received by the popular news portal, Malaysiakini, were to be used to influence the next general election with an aim to topple the government of Prime Minister Najib Razak.
The protest is expected to be dwarfed by a massive rally planned by the democracy group Bersih on Nov 19, which will call for the resignation of Najib over corruption allegations.
Dressed in red shirts, the demonstrators on Saturday chanted "close down, close down, close down Malaysiakini!".
"We don't want outside interference in our country," said Red Shirts leader Jamal Yunos, who is also a member of the ruling United Malays National Organisation (Umno) party.
More than 100 riot police officers were stationed in and around the Malaysiakini offices.
Malaysiakini is one of a handful of online sources that many Malaysians turn to for real news since many mainstream media outlets are subservient to the government.
The controversy erupted after the dubious muckraking site DC Leaks posted documents allegedly showing that the Open Society Foundation (OSF), founded by Soros, was funding local organisations to influence the outcome of the next general election that is due to be called by 2018.
Malaysiakini and other organisations such as Bersih were linked to funds from OSF. Malaysiakini has said the funds from OSF were only used to produce more stories on Sarawak, and constituted a small portion of its revenue.
Editor-in-chief Steven Gan told a news conference after the protesters dispersed that none of its shareholders or funders had any influence over editorial policy.
"You can ask any of our journalists or editors ... that's completely impossible," he said. He added that he didn't think there was any law that would enable the government to shut them down.
DC Leaks, established in June this year, has been responsible for publishing leaks of emails belonging to multiple prominent figures in the US government and military. The site was the source of the emails derived from the Democratic National Committee cyber attacks.
While the creators of DC Leaks describe themselves as "American hacktivists", the cybersecurity research firm ThreatConnect concluded that the site was probably linked to the Russian persona Guccifer 2.0 and the GRU hacker group Fancy Bear, according to Wikipedia.
In its section on Soros, DC Leaks says: "Soros is named an architect and a sponsor of almost every revolution and coup around the world for the last 25 years. The USA is thought to be a vampire due to him and his puppets."
The Red Shirts' Jamal had earlier vowed to "tear down" the offices of Malaysiakini by gathering more than 20,000 protesters.
"The threats against Malaysiakini are the latest instance of the right to freedom of expression coming under attack in the country," Amnesty International said in a statement on Friday.
Najib's administration has cracked down on the media and civil society in an attempt to silence criticism over his alleged involvement in a money-laundering scandal at the state fund 1MDB.
In July, US prosecutors filed civil lawsuits alleging that 1MDB had been defrauded of more than $3.5 billion.
Washington has alleged that some of the money looted from 1MDB, which was "advised" by a friend of Najib's stepson, ended up in the accounts of the latter's movie production company and was used to make The Wolf of Wall Street.
Najib has denied any wrongdoing and said Malaysia would cooperate with all international investigations.