Further to its investigation of two video clips it claimed has contravened the Communication and Multimedia Act (CMA) 1998, Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) has arranged to interview Malaysiakini's CEO and six members of its editorial team.

The seven to be interviewed are CEO Premesh Chandran, video editor Shufiyan Shukur, journalists Rahmah Ghazali, Andrew Ong and Mohd Jimadie Shah Othman, along with videographers Amir Abdullah and Kamal Ishak.

The six journalists and videographers were present at one or both events where the videos were recorded, or were involved in writing the news or editing the videos in question.

The interviews will take place from 10.30am tomorrow at Malaysiakini's office in Bangsar Utama.

In another development, MCMC officers have also been in touch with Malaysiakini's service provider to ask for technical details pertaining to its video servers. They have also summoned one person from the provider company for questioning.

Last Thursday, the agency tasked with regulating matters pertaining to communications and multimedia activities, sent a letter requesting the independent news portal to take down two 'provocative' videos featuring footages of the controversial cow-head protest and the subsequent press conference by Home Minister Hishamuddin Hussein, from its website.

The videos cited are: ' Temple demo: Residents march with cow's head ' and ' Hisham: Don't blame cow-head protesters '.

Displayed videos 'an offence'

According to MCMC monitoring and enforcement division senior acting director Abdul Halim Ahman, in his letter, the display of both videos on the news portal "is an offence under Section 211/233 of the CMA".

Under the Act, any individual found guilty of publishing content "which is indecent, obscene, false, menacing, or offensive in character with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass any person" is liable to a fine of up to RM50,000 or a jail sentence.

mcmc video 050909 In response to the MCMC letter, Malaysiakini editor-in-chief Steven Gan (left in blue shirt) explained that the portal does not plan to take down the videos and is seeking legal opinion on the matter.

According to Gan, both videos are news events which are of interest to the public.

"Our intent in putting up the videos was not to 'annoy' anyone but to do our job as journalists to draw attention to the protest and to ensure action is taken so that incidents like this will not happen again in Malaysia."

Following the reply, MCMC recorded Gan's statement last Saturday.

Earlier today, Mohd Khairul Abdul Kadir, from the commission, contacted Gan to arrange for a fresh round of interviews. Mohd Khairul and another officer, Mohamad Syukri Jamaluddin, are the MCMC investigators tasked with looking into the matter.

The MCMC directive has drawn the ire of many individuals, including Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ) executive director Gayathry Venkiteswaran and DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang.

lim kit siang and unity talks parliament pc 250609 01 Gayathry said the request was unwarranted as it is an attempt by a government body to silence the messenger, in this case the media, from reporting.

The more direct Lim (right) asked: "Before any action is contemplated against Malaysiakini , shouldn't action be taken against Hishammuddin first?".

He drew a parallel with the pendatang controversy which saw Sin Chew Daily journalist Tan Hoon Cheng detained under the Internal Security Act. However, Umno Bukit Bendera's Ahmad Ismail, the source of the controversy, went unpunished.