KUALA LUMPUR – DAP stepped forward to contribute RM10,000 merely several hours after Malaysiakini made a public plea to help the portal raise RM500,000.
Its Secretary-General, Lim Guan Eng said that the contribution was made to help the news portal raise the fund to pay the fines after it was found guilty for contempt of court.
“DAP will donate RM10,000 to Malaysiakini to pay for the RM500,000 fine.
“We urge all Malaysians to contribute and help Malaysiakini pay the fine for the sake of media freedom in the country,” said Guan Eng.
The Federal Court ordered Malaysiakini to pay RM500,000 after finding the company guilty of contempt of court for publishing readers’ comments. The decision received public criticism in the social media.
The fine was proposed by the Senior Federal Attorney, Suzana Atan and the news portal was given three days beginning Monday to settle the fine.
However, its Editor-in-Chief, Steven Gan was found not guilty on the charges.
On 9 June 2020, Malaysiakini published five readers’ comments on an article published by its portal entitled ‘CJ orders all courts to be fully operational from July 1’ which was deemed offensive. –MalaysiaGazette
