[2021] 2 MLRA
Peguam Negara Malaysia
v. MKINI Dotcom Sdn Bhd & Anor
443
Federal Constitution, arts 10(2)(a), 126, 145(3)
Rules of Court 2012, O 52 rr 2B, 3(1)
Other(s) referred to:
Borrie & Lowe: The Law of Contempt, 3rd edn, London: Butterworths, 1996, p 85
C Tapper, Cross & Wilkins, Outline of the Law of Evidence, 6th edn, London:
Butterworths, 1986), p 39
European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental
Freedoms, arts 10(2), 14, 34
Harvey, DJ, Collisions, Digital Paradigm: Law and Rule - Making in the Internet
Age, (USA: Bloomsbury, 2017), pp 82-83
Jurate Sidlauskiene & Vaidas Jurkevicius, Website Operators’ Liability for Offensive
Comments: A Comparative Analysis of Delfi AS v. Estonia and MTE & Index v.
Hungary [2017] 10 Baltic Journal of Law and Politics 46-75, p 48
M Hirst, Andrews & Hirst, Criminal Evidence, 3rd edn (London: Sweet &
Maxwell, 1997) p 115
Pappalardo, Kylie and Nicolas Suzor, “The Liability of Australian Online
Intermediaries” [2018] 40 Sydney Law Review 469-498, p 498
Sir Hari Singh Gour, The Penal Law of India , 11th edn, Vol 3, p 2381
Counsel:
For the appellant: Suzana Atan (Narkunavathy Sundareson & Noor Atiqah Zainal
Abidin with her); SFCs
For the respondents: Malik Imtiaz Sarwar (Surendra Ananth & Khoo Suk Chyi with
him); M/s Surendra Ananth
Watching Brief for Bar Council: Joy Wilson Appukuttan; M/s KH Lim & Co
Watching brief for International Federation of Journalist (IFJ) & National Journalist
Union of Malaysia (NJUM): New Sin Yew; M/s Amerson
Watching Brief for Centre for Independent Journalism & Gerakan Media Merdeka:
Yusmadi Yusoff; M/s Fahda Nur Yusmadi
JUDGMENT
Rohana Yusuf PCA (Majority):
Introduction
[1] The Honourable Attorney General of Malaysia (‘AG’), brought this
contempt proceeding against an online news portal, Mkini Dotcom Sdn Bhd
(Company No 489718-U) (‘Malaysiakini’) as the 1st respondent and its Editorin-Chief, Gan Diong Keng (‘Steven Gan’) as the 2nd respondent.
[2] To draw the chronological background to the Application before us, it all
began when Malaysiakini published an article entitled “Musa Aman acquitted