KUALA LUMPUR, March 22 – The Malaysian Insider (TMI) news portal was shut down by its own management, said Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Seri Dr Salleh Said Keruak. He said the cessation of operations of the news portal was a commercial decision by the TMI management and not because of government action blocking access to the news portal
“We (the government) did not shut down TMI, but blocked it (access to the news portal) because they breached certain existing Communications and Multimedia rule. We are not responsible for their losses. The Rakyat Post also shut down on its own due to commercial reasons,” he said when winding-up the debate on the Royal Address by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong at the Dewan Rakyat sitting here Tuesday.
Salleh also insisted that the block imposed on TMI was not his decision, but was taken by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) after carrying out detailed investigations on complaints received. He said the government did not arbitrarily restrict access to any website if it did not violate existing rules.
In the meantime, he also added that the government is not biased in this matter. Salleh said the commission had received the complaints from the public on the content of the article carried by TMI, which could threaten the harmony and stability of the country.
Further investigations by MCMC on the TMI article found it had breached Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 by publishing an article which contradicted a Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission statement, he said. Following this, MCMC blocked TMI portal on Feb 25. TMI shut down on March 15.
