The Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ) has criticised the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) for requesting Malaysiakini to remove two videos related to the controversial 'cow-head' protest.

boycott the newspaper pc 280108 gayathry CIJ executive director Gayathry Venkiteswaran said the request was unwarranted as it is an attempt by the government body to silence the messenger, in this case the media, from reporting.

She was referring to the letter sent to Malaysiakini by the MCMC requesting it to remove two videos (one of the protest where a cow-head was used and another on the press conference by Home Minister Hishamuddin Hussein) from its website.

In the letter, MCMC monitoring and enforcement division senior acting director Abdul Halim Ahmad said the commission received many complaints and that the videos contained offensive contents with the intent to annoy Indians.

However, Gayathry said that MCMC was 'misguided' as it was the role of the of the media to raise public interest issues.

"The source of the problem is not the media airing the footage, but that the protesters used methods that were despicable to voice their protest. It is the organisers of the cow-head protest who should be targeted and not the media that report on the matter.

"It is a repeat of the arrest of Sin Chew Daily reporter Tan Hoon Cheng under the Internal Security Act last September who had reported on a public speech by Penang Umno leader Ahmad Ismail where the messenger is attacked for what a politician expresses in public," she added in a statement.

Stop the harassment

She said MCMC should not continue with this harassment and leave the online media to report on news as it sees fit.

"There is no irresponsible or unethical reporting involved in the videos and if the commission is serious about not wanting to fuel public sentiments, it should support civil society calls to reject any use or threat of use of violence and hatred," she added, referring to the more than 70 civil society groups that have denounced the action of using the cow-head as part of the protest.

azlan CIJ also finds that the broadly worded Communications and Multimedia Act allows for censorship to take place on flimsy grounds, for example the poorly defined section that makes it a crime to "annoy" any person.

"The MCMC should be more discerning in assessing complaints it receives and understand better the role of the media as the fourth estate. If people feel upset by the videos, then they should be upset at any attempts of legitimising violence and hatred as a form of expression.

"The public has a right to be informed of what happens in society and the only way to mitigate any conflict is to present more and fair and accurate information, not less," she added.

Earlier, Malaysiakini editor-in-chief Steven Gan said the website would not take down the videos and was seeking legal advice on the matter.

"Our intent in putting up the videos was not to 'annoy' anyone, but to do our job as journalists to draw attention to the protest and to ensure action is taken so that incidents like this will not happen again in Malaysia," he added.

MCMC made an appointment with Gan for his statement to be recorded at the Malaysiakini office in Bangsar Utama, Kuala Lumpur, tomorrow.