KUALA LUMPUR – The Federal Court’s decision to fine Malaysiakini RM500,000 over comments made by its readers yesterday is a policy decision to stifle contemptuous statements being made against the court, not to curtail freedom of speech, observed former chief justice Tun Zaki Azmi.
Zaki also laid blame on the respondents for a lethargic defence that pleaded ignorance.
He said that one of the major factors decided against the respondents was that during the trial, they failed to explain to the court how the incident regarding contemptuous comments occurred.
“First, to me, the defendant didn’t come and explain how it happened – they (the court) put the responsibility on the company.
“In the context of this case, the words are very clearly contemptuous. Respondents admitted they were in contempt of the courts and judges; their defence was ‘I didn’t know it was happening’. They are only saying that sorry, ‘we can’t control it’.
“The court is therefore trying to tell everyone to be careful; you won’t get away by saying ‘I don’t know’. Their purpose is to impose responsibility (on news portals) – it has nothing to do with freedom of speech,” Zaki told The Vibes.
The retired judge believed that some responsibility must be placed upon online news outlets that allow readers’ comments to be published on their website – adding that portals must find a way to moderate these comments before they go live.
“The court wants to make the owners of news media responsible and not publish (contemptuous statements). The precedents that we have now are based a lot on hardcopy printing e.g. news reports, letters and commentaries sent to newspapers that are under the control of editors. The editor can, in those instances, say: ‘don’t print.’
“Here (on news portals) it’s accessible to anyone and editors may only discover it after their publication. If we’re talking about freedom of speech, from my personal observation, no one can deny there is freedom of speech, in Malaysia.
“But there must be some responsibility placed on outlets like Malaysiakini and The Vibes to ensure items published do not cross the line. News portals and social media owners and editors must take responsibility to ensure that they find a way to block contemptuous statements from being published,” he said.
He added that allowing such “unlawful” comments to continue to be made public will result in the public losing confidence in the judiciary, as by so allowing, anyone can demean the judiciary as they like.
“We cannot allow that. The judiciary is the third pillar of democracy.” – The Vibes, February 20, 2021
