The High Court will hear on April 27 the judicial review application filed by online news portal Malaysiakini and a publisher, challenging the ban imposed by the home minister on two books by cartoonist Zunar.

Judge Rohana Yusuf set the date upon meeting counsel K Shanmuga and senior federal counsel Noorhisham Ismail in chambers today.

NONE When asked on the matter, Noorhisham said the two applicants needed time to reply back to the respondents' affidavit-in-reply.

The court was to start hearing the application today.

Shanmuga is representing the applicants, Mkini Dotcom Sdn Bhd and the publishing company Sepakat Efektif Sdn Bhd, while Noorhisham acts for the respondents, which are the home minister and his deputy.

On Oct 8 last year, the High Court granted Mkini Dotcom, which operates the Malaysiakini news portal, and Sepakat Efektif, on behalf of cartoonist Zulkiflee SM Anwarul Haque or Zunar, leave to challenge the ban on the two books - ‘1Funny Malaysia’ and ‘Perak Darul Kartun’.

Cartoon books ‘prejudicial to public order’

In its application filed on July 26 last year, Mkini Dotcom said the English version, ‘1Funny Malaysia’, published by Malaysiakini in November 2009 and featured in the Malaysiakini website from October 2006 to November 2009, was a compilation of cartoons by Zunar, containing political satire on Malaysian politics and governance.

In a separate application filed on the same day, Sepakat Efektif said the Malay version book, ‘Perak Darul Kartun’, was published in November 2009 and featured political cartoons of many different artists led by Zunar.

They said that the deputy home minister on behalf of the home minister had on May 25, 2010, issued an order prohibiting the printing, production, sale, distribution or possession of the two books on the grounds that they were prejudicial to public order.

Mkini contended that the cartoons in the books had been published in the website for over two years and that the books were in circulation for three months before the seizure.

Sepakat Efektif said the ‘Perak Darul Kartun’ book had been in circulation for some six months since November 2009 and there were no reports received by the company at all of any threat to public order caused by the book.

They want, among others, a declaration that the ban on the two books was null and void, saying it contravened Section 7 of the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984, and Articles 5 and 8 of the Federal Constitution.

- Bernama