Malaysiakini to face contempt proceedings

(NST) – The Federal Court today rejected an application by Mkini Dotcom Sdn Bhd, the company that runs news portal Malaysiakini and its editor-in-chief to set aside the leave obtained by the Attorney-General (AG) to institute contempt proceedings against them.

The contempt proceedings relate to five readers’ comments which appeared on the news portal on June 9 which allegedly scandalised the judiciary.

A seven-man bench led by Court of Appeal president Datuk Rohana Yusuf made the decision after hearing submissions from both parties.

The court unanimously found that the Federal Court was the right forum to commence these proceedings, looking at the nature of the impugned comments.

Rohana said the comments implicated the judiciary as a whole which also included the Chief Justice.

“We will hear the merits of the AG’s application on another date.

“Pending the disposal of the matter, we hereby direct parties not to make any comments on this case to avoid subjudice,” she said.

The court then fixed July 13 for hearing of the AG’s contempt of court application.

The others presiding were Chief Judge of Malaya Tan Sri Azahar Mohamed, Chief judge of Sabah and Sarawak Datuk Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim and Federal Court judges Datuk Seri Mohd Zawawi Salleh, Datuk Nallini Pathmanathan, Datuk Vernon Ong Lam Kiat and Datuk Abdul Rahman Sebli.