The Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) today kicked off its investigation into two videos relating to the controversial cow-head protest by recording an official statement from the editor of independent news portal Malaysiakini.

Three MCMC officers visited Malaysiakini office in Bangsar Utama at 2pm to question editor-in-chief Steven Gan, who had yesterday said the website would not remove the videos.

The commission has sent a letter asking Malaysiakini to remove two 'provocative' videos, which included the footage of the Aug 28 cow-head protest in Shah Alam, from its website.

According to the commission, the “videos contain offensive contents with the intent to annoy any person, especially Indians”.

"This is an offence under Section 211/233 of the Communication and Multimedia Act 1998," said monitoring and enforcement division senior acting director Abdul Halim Ahmad in the Sept 3 letter.

mcmc video 050909At the 45-minute session, Gan told MCMC investigation officer Mohamad Syukri Jamaluddin (far right) that Malaysiakini was carrying out its job as a media organisation in reporting key news events.

“I told them we did not violate the Act as we did not intend to ‘annoy’ anyone by uploading the videos, but to bring the cow-head protest to public attention,” he said.

Gan also revealed that he had insisted for his statement to be recorded in Malaysiakini headquarters instead of the MCMC office in Putrajaya.

He said that the MCMC officers did not divulge details of the complainants.

Hishammuddin's press conference

Under the communication and multimedia law, any individual found guilty of publishing content "which is indecent, obscene, false, menacing, or offensive in character with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass any person" is liable to a fine of up to RM50,000 or a jail sentence.

MCMC, a government agency under the Information, Communications and Culture Ministry, is empowered to regulate matters relating to communications and multimedia activities, including private TV and radio stations as well as Internet websites.

According to the commission, it has received "numerous complaints" on several "provocative and offensive videos" that were posted on Malaysiakini and YouTube.

The videos cited were the 'Temple demo: Residents march with cow's head' and 'Hisham: Don't blame cow-head protesters'.

The second video is on Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein's meeting two days ago with the residents who staged the protest and his subsequent press conference.

Last Friday, the residents of Section 23 in Shah Alam made international news when they paraded a severed cow's head on the city streets to protest the proposal to relocate a Hindu temple to their neighbourhood.

Some of the protesters were also seen spitting and stepping on the cow's head, while at the same time threatening to "shed blood". The cow is considered sacred by Hindus.