No such thing as 'unofficial' gag order, says Sabah and S'wak Chief Judge

KOTA KINABALU: A Sessions Court judge did not issue a gag order to the media not to name a former state Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) deputy director in connection with a graft case, says Tan Sri David Wong Dak Wah.

The Sabah and Sarawak Chief Judge said there was no official court order made by Sessions Court Judge Abu Bakar Manat to stop the media from naming the person charged in the case.

Wong said he had talked to the judge and found out that there was no application by any party to stop the media from naming the accused.

"I looked at records of proceedings and I spoke to the judge, and he said he made no gag order.

"A gag order cannot be unofficial, the press can take it from me, unless there is an official order, you can publish whatever you want to publish. We can't stop freedom of information.

"There is no formal order from judge. As far as the press is concerned, there is no gag order. You can publish whatever needs to be published," he told reporters Wednesday (Feb 5) after launching a pet ownership and animal welfare guideline e-booklet here.

He said there could have been a misunderstanding between the judge and reporters.

"The bottom line is there was no gag order by the court," Wong added.

On Jan 22, the media had not named former Sabah and Labuan MCMC deputy director Karmilla Amirkhan, 40, who was charged in the Sessions

Court with six counts of misappropriating property entrusted to her involving the sum of RM17,930.

She had claimed trial to misusing money for organising awareness programmes at six schools between Jan 15 and Feb 27,2017.

The judge had requested journalists in the chambers not to publish the name of the accused to protect her school-going children.

Wong stressed that any order not to name an accused would need an application by either party and the judge would have to make a decision and only in cases where children were charged, were there provisions under the law to protect their identity.

"People can make an application for the judge to decide, then nobody can disturb the finding. In this case, there was no court order to gag anybody," he said, adding that there was no such thing as "unofficial" gag orders.