MalaysiaNow to ignore 'pressure' from MCMC

A news organisation vowed to ignore censorship attempts by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC).

MalaysiaNow editor Abdar Rahman Koya said his organisation will not bow to pressure in its pursuit of journalism.

MalaysiaNow claimed to have received an email from the MCMC demanding they either amend or remove articles titled “Blok PN keluar, ‘Tambun peliwat’ bergema di Dewan Rakyat selepas PM serang Radzi” and the English translation for the article titled “Pandemonium, walkout after PM refuses to retract accusation against Putrajaya MP”.

The MCMC reportedly said these articles do not reflect the proper context and the Bahasa Malaysia article’s title was “impolite, insulting, or disgusting” (tidak sopan, penghinaan, atau jelik).

MalaysiaNow was reportedly given two hours to comply or they would face “further enforcement actions”. The email was allegedly authored by MCMC’s “Content Analysis Department”.

The articles in question were on the rowdy exchange between government and opposition lawmakers, which led to Putrajaya MP Radzi Jidin being ejected from the Dewan Rakyat.

Rahman said the articles merely reflected the journalist’s account of the Parliament proceedings.

“The MCMC and Communications and Digital Minister Fahmi Fadzil have yet to explain why access to our website was restricted in June,” he said.

Some internet service providers had restricted access to MalaysiaNow for around 48 hours beginning June 27. Following this, Fahmi claimed no orders were issued to block the site.

Previously, the minister acknowledged MCMC took action against some news websites.

He argued this was necessary to deal with slanderous or fake news while defending legitimate journalism.

Other news websites such as TVPertiwi and UtusanTV have claimed they were victims of MCMC enforcement.

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