Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad contended that he’s merely exercising his right to free speech for questioning the number of victims of the Holocaust, a stance widely accepted as anti-semitic, in response to a question from the floor at Columbia University's World Leaders Forum in New York on Wednesday.

Dr Mahathir, who is in town for the 74th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, also recalled that a journalist had been jailed for disputing the numbers.