Probe on KJ: MCMC conducts 'data preservation' on Mkini article

Summary

• The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) conducts a "data preservation" operation related to a Malaysiakini article about former minister Khairy Jamaluddin.

• This comes after the police seized a laptop belonging to Malaysiakini in regard to the matter.

• The news portal executive editor expressed surprise over the decision given the article is available online.

The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) conducted a "data preservation" operation related to a Malaysiakini article about former minister Khairy Jamaluddin.

The operation took place this morning at the MCMC headquarters in Putrajaya, with Malaysiakini's executive editor RK Anand present.

Yesterday, Malaysiakini refused to provide the police with the username and password needed to access the portal's backend (content management system).

The portal was informed that non-compliance with the request would constitute an offence.

Following negotiations, it was agreed that the data extraction would take place at the MCMC office, with a representative from the news portal present to ensure that no security compromises occur.

In addition, the police seized a laptop from Malaysiakini yesterday to assist in their investigation into Khairy's allegations regarding the royal addendum which could former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak to serve the remainder of his prison sentence under house arrest.

Mkini a ‘witness’

Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil has since clarified that Malaysiakini is considered a “witness” in the investigation.

However, Anand expressed surprise at the police seizing a laptop from a “witness” and at the MCMC's request for access to the portal's backend.

"The article is available on our site for anyone to view. We have not denied publishing it," he said.

"In past investigations, where reports were filed based on comments in a Malaysiakini article, the police have never seized laptops or made other demands beyond taking a simple statement,” Anand added.

He questioned whether this meant that in the future, whenever a police report is filed based on comments in a news article, computers would be seized.

"If this is the case, and given the frequency of police reports lodged based on Malaysiakini articles - automatically making us a witness - we might run out of computers,” he added.

The police are investigating Khairy under Section 500 of the Penal Code for defamation and Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998.

This followed a police report lodged by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Azalina Othman Said’s political secretary Suraya Yaacob over a Malaysiakini article which quoted Khairy’s comments in his podcast “Keluar Sekejap”.

Commenting on the royal addendum saga, Khairy had said that it has led to a trust crisis within Umno.

The former Umno Youth chief also implied that Azalina was complicit in concealing the addendum.

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