JUDGMENT

Rohana Yusuf PCA (Majority):

Introduction

[1] The Honourable Attorney General of Malaysia (AG), brought this contempt proceeding against an online news portal, Mkini Dotcom Sdn Bhd (Company No 489718-U) (Malaysiakini) as the 1st respondent and its Editor-in-Chief, Gan Diong Keng (Steven Gan) as the 2nd respondent.

[2] To draw the chronological background to the Application before us, it all began when Malaysiakini published an article entitled "Musa Aman acquitted after prosecution applies to drop all charges" on 9 June 2020. In gist, it pertains to the acquittal of the former Sabah Chief Minister Musa Aman of 46 charges of corruption and money laundering. Coincidently on the very same day, the Office of the Chief Registrar issued a press release by the Chief Justice for all Courts to be fully operational from 1 July 2020, in line with the announcement that the country was moving into the recovery phase of the Movement Control Order. Malaysiakini republished from Bernama that press release as an article entitled "CJ orders all courts to be fully operational from July 1".