KUALA LUMPUR: Measat Broadcast Network Systems Sdn Bhd has been given the option to accept or reject the compound offer and file an appeal over the re-airing of the Al-Jazeera’s Murder in Malaysia/101 East documentary on Astro 513 channel.
The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) said in a statement, the compound offer dated July 1, 2020 was issued by MCMC to Measat Broadcast for violating Section 211 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 for allegedly airing offensive content with the intent to harass any persons.
The statement clarified that a complaint about the repeat airing of the documentary had been investigated for allegedly breaching the licensing conditions under Section 206(3) of the act for the Content Applications Service Providers (individual category).
According to the statement, the investigation paper was submitted to the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) on Dec 31, 2015 before MCMC was instructed to prosecute Measat Broadcast under Section 211 of the same act on Jan 5, 2016.
A few days later on Jan 8, MCMC proposed to the AGC to reconsider the decision to prosecute, instead it proposed for the company to be fined.
“The proposal was agreed and MCMC was ordered to prepare consent to compound as well as conduct further investigations to complete the investigations paper,” it added.
The statement said the deputy public prosecutor was briefed again on the case on April 30, 2019 and June 4 of this year, before the AGC issued instructions for a compound on June 23.
