After four hours of questioning, Jahabar Sadiq, editor of blocked news portal The Malaysian Insider ( TMI ) today said that he will leave it to the authorities to investigate if there were any offences committed.

Met outside Bukit Aman, Jahabar said he was questioned along with four others - managing editor Lionel Morais, assistant news editor V Anbalagan, and sub-editors Abdar Rahman Koya and Srihanasham Noordin.

"We leave it to them to investigate what they want to investigate. We stand by our story," Jahabar stressed.

All five were investigated for alleged offences under Section 124(I) Penal Code, Section 8(1) Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984, and Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998.

The portal, according to a statement by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) yesterday, was blocked for violating Section 233, a provision related to the misuse of network facilities.

MCMC, however, did did not provide any details which led to the ban.

PPPA used against online portal

Besides the police, all five were also questioned by officers from the MCMC.

Jahabar, however, pointed out that he has yet to be officially notified over the exact article that had led to the MCMC ban against TMI yesterday.

"We hope cooler heads will prevail and they will unblock our website as soon as possible. We do not think any offence have been committed," he said.

They were accompanied by lawyer Syahredzan Johan who pointed out that Section 124(I) of the Penal Code is a security offence that relates to the dissemination of false information.

"The authorities have the option of charging them under Sosma," he said, adding that the offence carries a maximum jail sentence of up to 20 years.

Section 8(A) of the PPPA, meanwhile, is for the alleged offence of publishing false news.

Asked why a law that regulates print publications is being used against an online portal, Syahredzan only said: "I do not know. Your guess is as good as mine."

Communications and Multimedia Minister Salleh Said Keruak had this morning confirmed that TMI was blocked as a result of an article on Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak that quoted anonymous sources.

"Yes, they did," said Syahredzan when asked if the investigators had asked his clients to reveal the anonymous source.

"None of the witnesses revealed the identity of the source," he stressed.