The government respects the Federal Court’s ruling that terms in the Communications Act are constitutional, following an activist’s legal challenge.
PUTRAJAYA: The government has welcomed and respected a Federal Court decision that upheld the constitutionality of the terms “insulting” and “annoying” within the country’s online communications law.
Communications Minister Datuk Fahmi Fadzil said the Cabinet accepted the unanimous ruling from the panel of judges. The court reinstated the two words into Section 233(1)(a) of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998.
The provision classifies online communication that is obscene, indecent, false, threatening, or offensive with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass as a criminal offence. This landmark ruling partially allowed the government’s appeal to set aside an earlier Court of Appeal decision.
That lower court had previously ruled the two terms were unconstitutional and void. The Federal Court panel, led by Chief Judge of Malaya Datuk Seri Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh, found they did not contradict the Federal Constitution.
Fahmi noted that the Act was amended in 2024 to set a higher legal standard. “It is no longer just (simply) offensive, but grossly offensive, accompanied by six very clear descriptions,” he explained during a weekly press conference.
He expressed belief that these amendments would make the act more difficult to misuse. The case originated from a legal challenge by activist Heidy Quah.
Quah had been charged in 2021 over a Facebook post before receiving a discharge not amounting to an acquittal in 2022. Her appeal led to the Court of Appeal’s initial decision to strike out the contentious words.
