Cops summon Fahmi Reza over satirical poster

Summary

• Fahmi Reza has been summoned for questioning over over a satirical poster.

• The graphic artist has not revealed what artwork he is being probed for.

• Police to take his statement on Dec 19 (tomorrow).

Bukit Aman has summoned graphic artist and activist Fahmi Reza over a satirical political poster he uploaded to Facebook.

According to a post to Fahmi Reza’s X account, he will be meeting the police at Bukit Aman tomorrow (Dec 19) at 8am.

“Mister police @PDRMsia, we meet tomorrow!” he said in his caption, along with the tags “satire is not a crime” and “Malaysia Madani”.

In his post, he revealed that he is being investigated under Section 4(1) of the Sedition Act 1948, Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act (CMA) 1998, and Section 504 of the Penal Code.

Malaysiakini confirmed the matter with Fahmi’s lawyer Rajsurian Pillai, who will be accompanying the former to Bukit Aman.

Fahmi did not reveal which poster he was being probed for.

However, the call for questioning came a day after he posted an image depicting former Sabah chief minister Musa Aman with an RM100 bill between his teeth. Across the image was red text calling Musa the number one corruptor in Sabah.

Musa has just been appointed as the next Sabah governor and will assume the position on Jan 1.

Hammer only for ‘grossly indecent’ content

Previously, Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil said that amendments to the CMA would not criminalise satirical content.

This is unless they cross the line to become “grossly offensive”, he said, adding that amendments would provide clear guidelines for enforcement and judicial interpretation.

Fahmi has had multiple run-ins with the law over the years because of his content.

In 2022, he was detained overnight for alleged sedition due to a series of satirical works over the #DengkiKe issue relating to the previous Agong’s wife.

A week before that, he was arrested for sedition in connection with his drawing of a chimpanzee cartoon character dressed akin to a sultan.

In 2018, he was fined RM10,000 for posting a picture of former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak as a clown.

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