The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) has launched another investigation into Malaysiakini , this time over two reports on the on-going Umno general assembly that the independent news portal published yesterday.

The reports, both on Umno president Najib Abdul Razak’s opening speech at the party’s 61 st AGM at the Putra World Trade Centre in Kuala Lumpur, are We must defend Putrajaya at all costs: Najib and PM moves to snuff out racial debates .

NONE MCMC investigator Mohd Syukri Jamaluddin ( right, in photo ) visited Malaysiakini ’s office in Bangsar Utama this afternoon to record a statement from editor-in-chief Steven Gan ( left, in photo ).

He said Malaysiakini was being investigated under Section 211 and 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998.

According to Syukri, he did not know who had made the report against Malaysiakini .

Gan described the MCMC’s investigation as a "waste of time".

"It is outrageous that the commission is probing these two reports which are generally a reproduction of Najib’s speech. We did not distort what he said. Everything that was reported by Malaysiakini was taken from his speech," he said.

Under the communications and multimedia law, any individual found guilty of publishing content "which is indecent, obscene, false, menacing, or offensive in character with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass any person" is liable for a fine of up to RM50,000 or a jail sentence.

Cow’s head videos

MCMC, a government agency under the Information, Communications and Culture Ministry, is empowered to regulate matters relating to communications and multimedia activities undertaken by amongst others, private TV and radio stations as well as Internet websites.

Syukri spent 30 minutes at the Malaysiakini office where he asked Gan a number of questions relating to the reports.

This is not the first time that MCMC has opened an investigation into Malaysiakini .

NONE Last September, the commission probed the website over two video clips relating to the infamous cow’s head protest at Shah Alam.

In that incident, a group of residents paraded a severed cow's head on the city streets to protest the proposal to relocate a Hindu temple to their neighbourhood.

After a public outcry, 12 of the protesters were eventually charged by the police for sedition and illegal assembly.

They were fined RM1,000 each by the Shah Alam Sessions court in July after pleading guilty to taking part in an illegal assembly.

Four of them however were granted a discharge not amounting to an acquittal from the sedition charges after the prosecution decided not to pursue the case.

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