Wednesday, October 3, 2012

114A: Guilty. Until proven Innocent

-The amendment of 114A of Evidence Act may potentially hold presumption towards innocent people.-

The new amendmentof Section 114A of Evidence Act 1950 goes against the fundamental principal ofJustice in Malaysia.  It makes presumption of the defendant to be guilty until proven innocent.

‘The law is so wide-ranging’ says Ms Abigail de Vries from Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ).

‘Any owner of a website, host or administrator can be potentially held liable for any content published.’ 

(Simple demonstration on how people would be affected by this amendment if content published was charged)

Innocent parties will be presumed guilty – even if their account was being heck – until proven innocent.

(Some profile may be frapped or hecked by other people)

However Mohammed Nazri, minister in the Prime Minister’s office state that this law stays as it was ‘necessary for the country's security’; this was said a day after the Internet BlackoutDay.

‘It (the amendment) was packaged as a form to combat terrorism, or security threads.’ Says Syahredzan Johan, Chairperson of the Malaysian Bar Council’s Constitutional Law Committee. ‘Why [sic] can it not be narrowed down to terrorist or security offences?’ To him, based on the actual words of the amendment, it is inconsistent with the justification provided.

‘Nazri assures Malaysians the government won't abuse the law. But that's what they said about the ISA in 1960, didnt they?’ said Anil Netto, Blogger and Treasurer of Aliran.

Reported by: Melvin Shawn D'Silva

Labels: Amendment 114A, Journalism

posted @ 12:37 AM |