The Malaysian Communications and Mutimedia Commission (MCMC) has released a statement on its move to block access to news portal The Malaysian Insider today.
At about 7.30pm, the MCMC posted onto its official Facebook page a copy of its press statement on the matter:
The translation reads:
“The Malaysian Communicaitons and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) has blocked the website of The Malaysian Insider following the decision of the portal to publish content that leads to a violation of Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998.
“The block wa also carried out by the MCMC following its receipt of numerous complaints and information from members of the public.
“In relation to this development, the MCMC reminds all news portals not to disseminate or publish articles that contain unverified information. Such actions could lead to public confusion and could bring about unwanted situations.”
The MCMC’s press statement did not state which article or articles published on the TMI website were construed to have been in violation of Section 233, which criminalises the act of “making, creating or soliciting, or initiates the transmission of any comment, suggestion, or other communication which is obscene, indecent, false, menacing, or offensive in nature with the intent ot annoy, abuse, threaten or harass another person.”
On a tangentially related note, TMI has bypassed its original URL in order to allow Malaysians to gain access to its new stories, in defiance of the MCMC blockade.
The new URL? www.themalaysianoutsider.com. Because cayalah.
