Posting offending messages on the internet is longer a trivial thing nowadays. Many internet users are now aware of their remedy when facing with offensive messages on the internet.
Bank Employee Charged With Posting Obscene Blog Title
KUALA LUMPUR, July 6 (Bernama) — A former EON Bank Berhad employee pleaded not guilty in the Sessions Court here Monday over the posting of an obscene blog title to embarrass his former boss.
Seah Boon Khim, 26, was accused of posting a vile and indecent material on a blog site http://www.xanga.com/hokongchan67 with intent to annoy Eon Bank Internal Audit Department head Ho Kong Chan at 1.33pm on Aug 13 2007 at 19 A-26-3 Level 6, UOA Centre 19, Jalan Pinang here.
He was charged under Section 233(1)(a) of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 which carries fine up to RM50,000 or jail up to one year or both.
In mitigation, Seah, who has since resigned from his job, said he had apologised to Ho and admitted that he did not realised the gravity of his action and he should not have done it.
Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission prosecuting officer Raja Iskandar Zulkharnian Raja Abdul Malek appeared for the prosecution.
Judge Zaki Abdul Wahab postponed sentencing until tomorrow.
— BERNAMA
Mr Seah was reportedly fined RM8,000.
S. 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 provides the following:
233. Improper use of network facilities or network service, etc.
(1) A person who-
(a) by means of any network facilities or network service or applications service knowingly-
(ii) initiates the transmission of,
any comment, request, suggestion or other communication which is obscene, indecent, false, menacing or offensive in character with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass another person; or
(b) initiates a communication using any applications service, whether continuously, repeatedly or otherwise, during which communication may or may not ensue, with or without disclosing his identity and with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass any person at any number or electronic address,
commits an offence.
(2) A person who knowingly-
(a) by means of a network service or applications service provides any obscene communication for commercial purposes to any person; or
(b) permits a network service or applications service under the person’s control to be used for an activity described in paragraph (a),
commits an offence.
(3) A person who commits an offence under this section shall, on conviction, be liable to a fine not exceeding fifty thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year or to both and shall also be liable to a further fine of one thousand ringgit for every day during which the offence is continued after conviction.
This section would also apply to offensive comments posted by readers of a blog. Bloggers now have an avenue to complain without incurring substantial legal fees. Watch out internet trolls!
A complainant may filed their complaint with the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission(MCMC).
I thought it would be beneficial to set out a sample complaint for the benefit of other bloggers. This may be in a form of a letter.
On [time on date e.g 12:30am GMT +8 on 31 February 2009], one [person e.g. bb_matik] made an [choose one or more: indecent/obscene/false/menacing/offensive] posting on my blog, [your blog address e.g. www.xes.cx], at the URL [URL which contains the said posting e.g. www.xes.cx/123.htm] using the IP address at [IP address e.g 192.168.1.1]. [Optional. Please note that there is 1000 characters limited] For ease of reference, I reproduce the offending posting:
[reproduce offending message here.
]
The above posting is [choose one or more: indecent/obscene/false/menacing/offensive] and I verily believe that the said posting was made with [choose one or more: intent to annoy/ abuse/threaten/harass] me. The said posting has caused [choose one: annoyance/fear/embarrassment] to me.
Thus, I hope that the MCMC will take action against the person who posted the said posting.
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