KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 12): The government is appealing last month’s appellate court ruling that online remarks defined as “offensive” with intention to “annoy” are not a criminal offence under the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 (CMA).
The government had filed leave (permission) to initiate its appeal last week, on Sept 4.
In civil proceedings, permission must be obtained from the apex court before merits of the appeal are actually heard.
In the application sighted by The Edge, the government is seeking leave for the Federal Court to make determinations on three questions of law.
Last month, a three-member Court of Appeal (COA) panel, led by now Federal Court judge Datuk Lee Swee Seng, struck down the provision of the CMA, which criminalises online posts that “annoy” and were “offensive” on the grounds that it violated freedom of speech guaranteed in the Federal Constitution.
The panel also said that Section 233 of the CMA doesn’t clearly define what counts as offensive remarks, or an intent to annoy.
An offence under Section 233 carried a fine of up to RM50,000, a maximum one-year jail term, or both, upon conviction.
The ruling involved activist Heidy Quah, who was charged in 2021 under the same law for an “offensive” Facebook post about conditions in an Immigration detention centre during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The ruling was in relation to Quah’s challenge against her 2021 charge, under the same Section of the CMA.
Although the Sessions Court later granted her a discharge not amounting to an acquittal (DNAA), Quah pressed ahead with a constitutional challenge of the law.
The High Court dismissed her application in 2023, but the COA reversed that finding in August this year.