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PUTRAJAYA, Feb 19 ― The Federal Court today sentenced Malaysiakini’s operator Mkini Dot Com Sdn Bhd to a fine of RM500,000 for contempt over its facilitation of five readers’ remarks against the judiciary on the news portal’s website.
Court of Appeal president Tan Sri Rohana Yusuf delivered the decision by the panel of seven judges for the fine of RM500,000 to be paid within three days from Monday.
Chief Judge of Malaya Tan Sri Azahar Mohamed, Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Datuk Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim, Datuk Seri Mohd Zawawi Salleh, Datuk Vernon Ong Lam Kiat, Datuk Abdul Rahman Sebli and Datuk Nallini Pathmanathan were the others on the panel.
Before the Federal Court decided on the fine, Malaysiakini’s lawyer Datuk Malik Imtiaz Sarwar had suggested that the judges consider the judgment itself ― which found the news portal to be in contempt of court ― to be sufficient, having also highlighted Malaysiakini’s previous unreserved apology on the comments which the portal had immediately removed within minutes of being alerted.
“The judgment records Malaysiakini as in contempt, which in itself is quite a strong thing. However if this noble court considers a need to go further, obviously because it’s a company, would have to be a fine, I would ask My Lords and My Ladies to consider a nominal fee.
“I would think something in RM20,000 to RM30,000 would be a fair sum to reflect the displeasure of the courts, but at the same time show the compassion of the court with respect to the fact that this case is the first of its case,” he said.
Imtiaz further asked for the Federal Court to allow for two or three working days for such a fine to be paid.
“I would urge my Ladies and My Lords to see the fact that the judgment itself will go a long way in addressing the state of affairs,” he said.
However, senior federal counsel Suzana Atan pressed for a higher sum of fine to be meted out on Malaysiakini.
“My Ladies, My Lord, although we acknowledge that the first respondent (Malaysiakini), there was an expression of regret from the first respondent but we believe it has to be balanced with the failure to assume responsibility, being an online portal which facilitates comments being made on the portal.
“They must be accountable, My Ladies and My Lord. This is the first case of its kind. We believe this case should serve as a reminder not only to the first respondent, but to all online news portals which provide such services, therefore we propose for a fine of RM200,000 as an appropriate sentence,” she argued.
After hearing the proposed fine amounts by both the lawyers for Malaysiakini and from the Attorney General’s Chambers, the judges then stood down before deciding on the sentencing for Malaysiakini.
Earlier today, the Federal Court decided Malaysiakini was in contempt, but said its editor-in-chief Steven Gan was not in contempt.
On June 17, 2020, the Federal Court allowed the attorney general to start contempt of court proceedings against Malaysiakini’s operator Mkini Dot Com Sdn Bhd and Malaysiakini’s “Ketua Editor.”
The five comments were posted under a June 9 news report titled “CJ orders all courts to be fully operational from July 1”, with Malaysiakini having previously said that it was alerted at 12.45pm on June 12 about these comments when police contacted them to notify about investigations regarding these comments.
In court documents, Malaysiakini previously said it was not aware of the five offensive comments previously as no readers had reported these comments and as the comments did not carry any of the “suspected words” that Malaysiakini’s filter could detect, further noting that the editorial team had immediately reviewed the comments upon being alerted by the police and removed the comments at 12.57pm the same day.
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from Malay Mail - Malaysia
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