News portal facing contempt suit by AG on July 13

PUTRAJAYA: News portal Malaysiakini will be facing a contempt of court action by the Attorney General on July 13 over readers’ comments on the judiciary after it failed to set it aside at the Federal Court.

A seven-man panel chaired by Court of Appeal president Justice Rohana Yusuf dismissed Malaysiakini’s application to set aside the leave obtained by the AG in the contempt action after hearing submissions from both parties yesterday.

In the unanimous decision, Justice Rohana said the Federal

Court was the right forum to commence these proceedings after looking at the nature of the impugned comments.

The comments, she said, implicated the judiciary as a whole, including the Chief Justice.

“Pending the disposal of the matter, we hereby direct parties not to make any comments on this case to avoid sub judice,” she said.

The court fixed July 13 for hearing on the merits of the contempt action.

Other judges on the panel were Chief Judge of Malaya Justice Azahar Mohamed, Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Justice Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim and Federal Court judges Justices Mohd

Zawawi Salleh, P. Nallini, Vernon Ong Lam Kiat and Abdul Rahman Sebli.

Lawyer Datuk Malik Imtiaz Sarwar, who represented the respondents (Malaysiakini and its editor-in-chief), said that the AG’s application for leave ought to have been filed at the High Court.

He said filing for leave at the apex court would deprive the respondents of their right to appeal and a violation of the respondents’ guarantee of due process under Article 8 of the Federal Constitution.

Senior Federal Counsel Suzana Atan, in her submission, said Malaysiakini had sufficient control of its platform and it should exercise responsibility in moderating the comments instead of having a third party, which was the police, to inform them of the offensive comments before taking them down.

On June 15, AG Tan Sri Idrus Harun filed an ex parte application to commence the contempt of court proceedings over comments from readers in an article dated June 9 titled “CJ orders all courts to be fully operational from July 1”.

In his affidavit, Idrus cited five comments and said they “clearly meant that the judiciary committed wrongdoings, is involved in corruption, does not uphold justice and compromised its integrity”.

Idrus claimed that the news portal erred in facilitating the publication of these comments which were “unwarranted” and “demeaning” attacks on the judiciary.

On June 17, a Federal Court three-member bench allowed the ex-parte application for leave to commence committal proceedings against Mkini Dotcom – which runs news portal Malaysiakini – and Malaysiakini’s editor-in chief on grounds that a prima facie case for contempt was established.

Speaking to reporters outside, Malaysiakini’s editor-in-chief Steven Gan said they could not comment further on the matter based on the court’s order.

“We will definitely be fighting it when we come back here on July 13,” he said.