PUTRAJAYA: Mkini Dotcom Sdn Bhd, the company which runs news portal Malaysiakini, and its editor-in-chief have lost their bid to set aside leave obtained by the Attorney-General (AG) to start contempt of court proceedings against them.
The Federal Court today rejected their application to set aside the leave.
The contempt proceedings is over five readers' comments which appeared in the comment site of an article published on the news portal entitled "CJ orders all courts to be fully operational from July 1" on June 9 which allegedly scandalised the judiciary.
In a unanimous decision, a seven-man bench led by Court of Appeal president Datuk Rohana Yusuf 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 had implicated the judiciary as a whole which also includes 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.
Earlier in submissions, lawyer Datuk Malik Imtiaz Sarwar who appeared for the respondents (Malaysiakini) said the AG's application for leave ought to have been filed at the High Court.
He said filing the leave at the Apex Court would deprive the respondents of their right to appeal and a violation of the respondents' guarantee of due process under Article 8 of the Federal Constitution.
He added that it was a common practice that online news portals, third parties, readers and subscribers leave comments on articles that are published.
Meanwhile, senior federal counsel Suzana Atan in her submissions said Mkini has sufficient control on the platform and it should take responsibility in moderating the comments instead of having the police, a third party, to inform.
"They should take a more proactive action to take down the comments immediately instead of having a third parting to inform them," she added.
Attorney General Tan Sri Idrus Harun filed the ex-parte application to institute contempt of court proceedings over the comments on the article.
He had in his affidavit contended that the Comments "clearly meant that the judiciary committed wrongdoings, was involved in corruption, does not uphold justice and compromised its integrity".
He said the news portal erred in facilitating the publication of the Comments which were "unwarranted and demeaning" attacks on the judiciary.
On June 17, the Federal Court gave a green light to institute contempt proceedings after allowing Idrus' ex-parte leave application on grounds that prima facie for contempt has been established to initiate the proceedings.
Outside the court, before the proceedings began, Malaysiakini editor-in-chief Steven Gan said the decision of the case will have a tremendous impact to not only Malaysiakini but also other media companies providing the comment platform.
He said this was because companies could be liable for whatever comments are put by their readers besides the content they publish.
"I just want to say that the speed of the action against Malaysiakini in this contempt of court case is so fast that we have to prepare for the worse.
"I hope that good sense will prevail. Whatever decision the court makes will have a tremendous impact not just on Malaysiakini but also media organisations and the millions of Malaysian social media users.
"So they have to be responsible for the comments that readers have put in even if they have taken them (comments) out," he said before entering the courtroom for the proceedings.