The government today come under pressure from a Barisan Nasional component party over its investigation into independent online media portal Malaysiakini for carrying two video clips which the authorities deemed to be offensive.

NONE Gerakan Youth wing vice-president Liang Teck Meng said that the action taken by Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) against Malaysiakini contradicted the government's stand of ensuring freedom of speech.

Liang added that the Minister of Information, Communication and Culture Rais Yatim should direct the MCMC to stop harassing Malaysiakini .

The Simpang Renggam member of parliament added that the MCMC probe was "against fair reporting which the public is entitled to".

He also noted that Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak had given an assurance to the people that the government would not censor the Internet.

NONE The MCMC is investigating Malaysiakini over two of its videos relating to the cow-head protest in Shah Alam on Aug 28 and a subsequent press conference by Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein on Sept 2.

The videos were the ' Temple demo: Residents march with cow's head ' and ' Hisham: Don't blame cow-head protesters ' which showed the Home Minister's press conference regarding the issue.

Editorial team questioned

Malaysiakini is accused of contravening the Communication and Multimedia Act (CMA) 1998 by putting up the two video clips.

The commission had sent a letter on Sept 3 requesting the independent news portal to take down two 'provocative' videos from its website.

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".

NONE 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.

Malaysiakini has refused to take down the video on the grounds that it had merely reported on the two events.

The MCMC probe has so far centred on statements being taken from Malaysiakini's CEO Premesh Chandran, Editor-in-Chief Steven Gan, 10 editorial team members and two technical staff.

They have also questioned Malaysiakini 's service providers and have taken an image of certain parts of the hard disk from two Malaysiakini computers used to edit and upload the videos. Photographs were taken of the hard disks and their serial numbers.

This is to establish a 'digital trail' from the original video footage to the final uploading of the two videos.

Last week MCA also urged the government to stop its investigation on Malaysiakini over the two video clips.