The Home Ministry yesterday instructed the halt of the Penang screening of a documentary banned in Singapore, even though the film was successfully screened in Johor last week.

Ten ministry officers and several uniformed police personnel were present at the Penang government-backed Freedom Film Fest 2014 in Komtar to stop the screening of 'To Singapore, With Love'.

However the event was allowed to proceed after negotiations between home ministry officials, festival organizer Pusat Komas and it local partner Suaram Penang.

Also part of the negotations were Tanjong MP Ng Wei Aik (left) , who was invited to launch the screening on behalf of the state and PKR’s Kebun Bunga assemblyperson Cheah Kah Peng.

According to Ng, the officers claimed that none of the films due to be screened at the festival received approval of the censorship board, as required under section 6 of Film Censorship Act 2002.

"But we argued that under section 2(3), the Act is not applicable to any film published, circulated, exhibited or distributed on the Internet. Futhermore, this is a private event," Ng said.

He added that officers also tried to get copies of all the films, but were informed that the screening was done via live streaming on the Internet.

Write a report

He said the officers finally relented and allowed the film to be screened to about 80 people who were present.

Three officers, however, sat in on all the screenings so as to write a report about the festival later.

"They also can’t promise no futher action after that,” he said.

When approached by Malaysiakini , the officers on the scene yesterday refused to comment.

According to Ng, Freedom Film Fest never faced any problems in Penang in previous years.

He added that he is also unaware if the Malaysian government had faced diplomatic pressure to stop the screening of the Singaporean documentary, which follows the lives of exiled Singaporean activists. 

He also said that society is mature enough to discern right from wrong and the government need not dictate what citizens can watch, write, read and speak.

Meanwhile, Suaram Penang secretariat member Loo Que Lin said a Home Ministry officer from the Butterworth office called her on Friday to instruct organisers not to screen the "Singapore movie".

Venue owner harrassed

 

"The officer asked us not to proceeed and told us he will bring along 10 of his colleagues to the event to meet us.

"I asked which part of the film is problematic and violated the law, and which section of the law? But he only manage to claim that we are not permitted to (screen the film)."

This is not the first time a scheduled screening of 'To Singapore, With Love' has faced problems during the festival.

Pusat Komas executive director Anna Har (left) said the Kuantan screening was cancelled "after the venue owner was pressured and harassed by the authorities".  

However, the screenings in Kuala Lumpur, where the filmmaker Tan Pin Pin spoke and Johor Bahru went on smoothly .

Har also condemned use of the Film Censorship Act 2002, which is invoked to impose blanket bans on any film deemed "improper" by the authorities.

"This is an online technology era, if you want to censor every film including those online, then you may need to hire 10,000 officers to do so."