KUALA LUMPUR — Satire and parody will not be criminal offences under proposed amendments to the Communications and Multimedia Act (Act 588), lawyer-turned-politician Syahredzan Johan said.
He welcomed the bill tabled by Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil for first reading in the Dewan Rakyat yesterday, saying that the government had now recognised that both these art forms are “legitimate criticism or commentary”.
“(They) are not crimes that need to be punished.
“If this amendment is passed, satire and parody in art and literature will be better protected. This is what it should be,” the Bangi MP said in a statement.
Syahredzan, who previously represented satirist and graphic artist Fahmi Reza, referred to the proposed amendment to Section 233 and the bill’s explanation on what is meant by content that is “obscene”, “indecent” and “false”.
He highlighted the explanation which states that “…Content that is satirical or parodic or in a clear state that it is fiction, is not false”.
“This means that if this Bill is passed, satirical and parodic postings, such as the one by Fahmi Reza eight years ago, will not be included as ‘false’ which is an element of the offence in Section 233.
“Content that is ‘clearly’ fictional, also does not meet the ‘false’ element,” Syahredzan added.
The DAP politician had previously defended Fahmi in 2016 when the latter was charged under Section 233(1)(a) of the CMA for posting content that was allegedly false in nature with the intention of hurting others.
Fahmi was convicted under that section for posting a caricature of then prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.
“For the case, I represented Fahmi Reza as his lawyer. Our main defence was that Fahmi Reza’s posting was a form of parody and therefore, it was not ‘false’ under Section 233 and did not constitute an offence.
“(But) the (Ipoh) sessions court found…that even if the posting was a parody,…there (was) no provision under Act 588 that provides that parody is a defence and exception to the offence under Section 233 of the same Act.
“In other words, parody posting (and also satire) … is a criminal offence,” said Syahredzan who said subsequent appeals in the higher courts were unsuccessful.
“Our defence based on parody was unsuccessful.”
While Fahmi did not manage to overturn his conviction, the high court granted his appeal on sentencing, setting aside the one-month jail time ordered by the sessions court and reducing his fine to RM10,000 from the original RM30,000. – December 3, 2024