Court prohibits uploading of Najib’s trial recordings

KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court yesterday ordered an immediate stop to the uploading of recordings of Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s trial’s court proceedings.

Judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali said “appropriate” action would be taken if the ruling was breached.

He said the court might stop supplying the court recording transcript (CRT) to both sides if it happened again.

He issued the directive after hearing arguments from the prosecution and Najib’s lawyers.

Deputy public prosecutor Datuk V. Sithambaram had, at the onset of the hearings, asked the court for direction on the recordings.

He told the court that a CRT video had been uploaded on the Facebook page of Najib’s former personal aide, Isham Jalil.

He said the video made the rounds on social media.

“We can’t let this trial to be turned into a circus,” he said.

Sithambaram said the CRT could only be obtained by both sides and other interested parties by signing an undertaking document known as Form B.

He said the undertaking included not to copy, distribute or upload it onto any medium.

“We seek an undertaking from the defence not to give the CRT to any third party.

“The public and social media users should also be warned not to upload it without permission from the court,” he said.

However, Najib’s lead counsel, Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, said there should be no prohibition in the uploading of the proceedings.

He said the proceedings were being streamed live for about 20 people covering the case from an adjoining room and there was no reason not to let the rest of the country follow it too.