Friday 29 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 20): Video news portal KiniTV and its two directors were acquitted and discharged by the Sessions Court here today with uploading a video critical of former  Attorney-General Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali.

Judge M.M Edwin Paramjothy made the decision after hearing submissions by prosecuting officer from the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), Nazrul Nizam Mohd Zameri, and lawyer Fahri Azad , who appeared on behalf of the two KiniTV directors, Steven Gan Diong Keng, 56, and J. Premesh Chandran, 49.

Nazrul Nizam told the court that the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) had received the representations sent by the persons summoned to drop the charges against them.

"We received instruction from the AGC to withdraw the charges against the two persons summoned and request the two of them to be discharged not amounting to an acquittal because the case has yet to be decided on its merit and therefore not appropriate for the court to acquit and discharge them,” he added.

Today was set for the first day trial of the case and Nazrul Nizam informed the court that the prosecution was ready with six witnesses.

Meanwhile, Fahri requested for his clients to be acquitted and discharged as it would be unfair to have the charges hanging over them.

He said former Batu Kawan UMNO vice-chief Datuk Seri Khairuddin Abu Hassan who criticised Apandi, who was then the AG, in the video was not charged yet.

KiniTV was charged with making and initiating the transmission of offensive comments with intention to annoy another person through two video versions, with the titles "Khairuddin: Apandi Ali tidak layak jadi AG, wajar segera letak jawatan" and "Khairuddin: Apandi Ali not fit to be AG, he should quit immediately".

The videos were watched at 10 am on Aug 2, 2016 at the Attorney-General's Chambers, Persiaran Perdana, Precinct 4, Putrajaya.

KiniTV, which is a subsidiary of Malaysiakini, was alleged to have transmitted the two video using the link application at http//www.kinitv.com/video/36070308 and http//www.kinitv.com/video/36708074 at 1.14 pm and 1.34 pm, respectively, on July 27, 2016.

The charges were made under Section 233 (1)(a) of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 for improper use of network facilities for communications that are deemed offensive, false or obscene, among others.

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