DAP: Charging artist Fahmi displays BN-PN insecurities

 

DAP has criticised the federal government for repeatedly laying criminal charges against artist Fahmi Reza over his satirical work.

In a statement today, the party’s secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said the government should be using its powers to protect the public and not abuse those powers to shield themselves from criticism.

"The unelected government of BN and PN (Perikatan Nasional) must indeed be fragile and insecure as to feel threatened by a single graphic artist until the full might and powers of the government machinery are repeatedly mobilised against Fahmi," said Lim.

Recently, Fahmi was slapped with two charges under Section 233(3) of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998.

This highly contentious law criminalises "improper use of network facilities to make an obscene posting with the intent to annoy another person".

The first charge involved allegedly obscene material depicting a cabinet minister. Another involved PAS.

Lim, who has repeatedly been a subject of Fahmi's unflattering caricatures, said Pakatan Harapan had never invoked this law on their critics when they were in power.

"(We never used this law) regardless of how false and unfair the criticisms were, including baseless racist and extremist attacks. Even when cyber threats to the personal safety of Harapan ministers were made, no action was taken by the authorities.

"Why should the authorities charge Fahmi when no legal action of defamation is taken by the minister against Fahmi?

“Clearly, the public space for criticism and freedom of expression is slowly but surely disappearing under an extremist regime that has no regard for democracy and the dangers of corruption.

"DAP urges these charges to be withdrawn to demonstrate that Malaysia respects internet freedom from government interference," said Lim.

If found guilty, Fahmi may be fined up to RM50,000, jailed up to a year, or both. Combined, Fahmi had to put up RM8,000 in bail money. - Mkini