MCMC raids Malaysiakini office, seize computers

(MMO) – A six-man team from the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) paid a surprise visit on news portal Malaysiakini’s office in Petaling Jaya, Selangor today, and confiscated two computers.

According to Malaysiakini, the MCMC raid was over two video clips it had uploaded in July on its website of a press conference by former Umno politician Datuk Khairuddin Abu Hassan that was critical of Attorney-General Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali.

Malaysiakini said it is being investigated under Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act, for alleged improper use of network facilities.

It added that the Internet regulators had ordered the news outlet’s broadcast arm, KiniTV to remove the videos two months ago but was refused.

“We believe that there is nothing wrong with the rest of the content of both videos and removing them will impinge on our duty as journalists in reporting issues of public interest,” Malaysiakini’s editor-in-chief Steven Gan was quoted saying in an account of the raid.

The MCMC team was led the deputy director of the enforcement and investigation unit Akmal Hamdy Baharudin who showed a search warrant. The search that started in the afternoon lasted four hours.

Malaysiakini was previously subject to a joint raid by the MCMC and the police almost a full year ago, over its news report on the transfer of a deputy public prosecutor seconded to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s special operations division.

In the November 6, 2015 raid, a computer was also seized, the news outlet said.