We all know Malaysiakini is the famous Internet news portal that delivers us independent critical real news. But once in a while, Malaysiakini becomes top news as well.

The Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) officials have just conducted marathon interviews with 12 Malaysiakini staff members for two videos put up by them, one showing the infamous cow-head protest and the other, showing Hishammuddin Hussein's press conference.

azlan According to MCMC monitoring and enforcement division senior acting director Abdul Halim Ahmad, in his letter, the display of both videos on the news portal "is an offence under Section 211/233 of the CMA".

Under the Act, 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.

I must agree that the incident of the cow head protest and the home minister's response are indeed very "offensive" to those Malaysians of all races who are level headed and aspire towards a harmonious stable and congenial multiracial and multi-religious Malaysia.

Therefore, Malaysiakini should be lauded for their reporting of those incidents without fear or favour so that the narrow-mindedness of insulting another person's religion can be nipped in the bud.

A more enlightened government would have awarded Malaysiakini co-founders Premesh Chandran and Steven Gan a Datukship long ago, not that they need these titles anyway. Nowadays, if you throw a stone into the air at Jalan Bukit Bintang, you are likely to hit a Datuk or two.

The MCMC had earlier written in to Malaysiakini to remove the two "offensive" videos, without specifying who has been offended by them. Gan, the editor-in-chief, has refused to comply. So it is now up to the MCMC to proceed with charging Malaysiakini for the unspecified offense. This is not Malaysiakini's first tussle with the court, and it will not be the last.

But the focus is now on the MCMC staff.

Is the MCMC a "Malay-dominated institution of state" established to maintain Malay dominance in all things Malaysian, as Utusan Malaysia commentators would have put it?

How are the MCMC officers recruited and trained in their work? Are they well paid, or are they paid with monkey's peanuts? How do they judge whether something on the Internet is "offensive" or not - by their subjective judgement or upon complaints by the public? What kind of academic qualification do they have? Are they qualified to question a seasoned journalist like Gan? Do they have any knowledge of journalistic ethics at all?

There are some blogs and some websites which are indeed very offensive to me because of their racist and religious comments. Why are these not investigated? Why investigate a net news portal like Malaysiakini , which has been recognised nationally and internationally as an acclaimed media organisation in Malaysia?

No mean feat

After all, Malaysiakini is poised to celebrate its 10 th anniversary since its launch.

That is no mean feat. They started out at a time when Internet news was just at its infancy. All I heard was how they kept losing money, year after year. How the Malaysiakini people kept their faith is anybody's guess!

I started writing for Malaysiakini six or seven years ago. They paid me peanuts but I did not mind, because I am no monkey, but a political pensioner who wants to help good journalism grow. You know, man cannot live by bread alone, and all that.

Nowadays, I still meet their weekly deadlines without fail, unless I am hit with a writer's block the size of Mount Everest. When you write for a journal like Malaysiakini that aspires to the highest standard of journalism, you'd better be very professional as well.

Never once has Malaysiakini tried to censor my writing. Never once have they told me what to write and not to write. I was a columnist for various mainstream newspapers before the advent of the Internet in the 1980s and the 1990s, and was often told to stay clear of certain minefields. Being censored was part of a columnist's professional hazard in those bad old days.

NONE Being absolutely free to write what I want made me even more responsible and careful. I would never want to hurt my friends and colleagues at Malaysiakini by shooting from my hip just to satisfy my petty ego.

I have learned to be more circumspective and reflective, and the freedom of expression furnished by Malaysiakini has given writers like me the opportunity to practice better journalism. I am grateful to them.

Malaysiakini has become an integral part of my life. I read it first thing in the morning when I wake up, with my first cup of coffee, before I start writing for my columns. Before I go to bed, I browse through it again, to catch the latest breaking news.

So, 10 years after their launch, Malaysiakini has become a leading player in the alternative media. Internet news and comments have finally become saleable commodities. For many Netizens and bloggers, Malaysiakini is the authoritative voice of independent journalism, in sharp contrast to the mainstream media.

Now, with more players like The Malaysian Insider and Malaysian Mirror in the field, Malaysiakini is apparently feeling the competition. They have made significant changes to their appearance and format to make it more attractive. They have added quite a lot of soft content to the hard hitting news and views, perhaps with the young audience in mind. This is all part and parcel of the path towards growth and maturity of our alternative media industry.

Looking back into the last 10 years, Malaysiakini has always been at the forefront of this invisible but critical change in how Malaysians get their information and alternative views.

This change, though unglamorous and almost imperceptible, has changed politics in Malaysia in revolutionary ways forever. In the past, the ruling parties could control the flow of information by controlling the traditional print and electronic media, thereby monopolising the power for their political narrative.

The arrival of the Internet news portals and the many blogs they spawn has broken that BN monopoly. Opposition parties and civil society groups can now use this new platform to articulate their alternative world views in ways that Malaysians could only dream of a mere decade ago.

Without the Internet news portals, the March 8 tsunami last year would perhaps not be possible.

As more and more Malaysians subscribe to the Internet in years to come, the role of Malaysiakini and other net news portals in providing alternative information will become increasingly significant, especially with the younger generation of citizens. The MCMC is on the wrong side of history. They are still playing by the rules of the Old Politics, at a time when more and more Malaysians are experimenting with the possibilities of the New Politics.

I know members of the Malaysiakini team are not in the habit of self-glorification. But everybody needs a pat on the back sometimes.

So on their 10 th birthday, Malaysiakini , may you have many more decades of good journalism to come!

SIM KWANG YANG can be reached at kenyalang578@hotmail.com . Malaysiakini will be holding a gala dinner to celebrate its 10 th year anniversary on Nov 28. Mark it in your diary.