KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 18 — Charging journalists with criminal offences simply for airing a press conference amounts to an attack on media freedom, the Institute of Journalists Malaysia (IOJ) said today.

In an immediate response to the prosecution of Malaysiakini editor-in-chief Steven Gan earlier today, IOJ said reporters must be allowed to report freely on events even if they did not favour the government of the day.

"Journalists must have the liberty to report events that they feel merits coverage, even if such coverage may not be favourable to the government of the day,” it said in a statement.

The media, IOJ said, has the responsibility to hold public officials to scrutiny.

"They should not be prosecuted for reporting criticism of public officials, whether such censure is warranted or not,” it added.

Gan was hit with four charges under the Communications and Multimedia (CMA) Act 1998 for airing a news conference that was critical of Attorney-General Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali last July.

The first two charges under Section 233 (1) (a) of the Communications and Multimedia (CMA) Act 1998 criminalises improper use of network facilities by knowingly transmitting contents which are offensive, menacing, obscene, false and indecent with the intent to annoy, abuse or threaten another person.

He was also charged again as a director of KiniTV Sdn Bhd, the video arm of the news portal, under Section 244 (1) of CMA, which states that a company’s executive officers are also liable for offences committed by the company.

The video was of a press conference held by Datuk Khairuddin Abu Hassan titled "Khairuddin: Apandi Ali is not fit to be AG and he should quit immediately”, and was uploaded on the English and Bahasa Malaysia websites of KiniTV on July 27 this year, at different times.

IOJ said the case indicated a conflict of interest if the Attorney-General had called for the prosecution.

"If it is true that the AG had made a complaint to MCMC and then later initiated prosecution when Malaysiakini refused to take down the videos containing criticism of the AG himself, then the case poses a conflict of interest and raises serious questions on the abuse of his office.

"We call on the AG to drop the case against Malaysiakini and to respect the press,” it said.