KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 5 ― The publisher of The Edge Financial Daily and The Edge Weekly was granted leave today to challenge the Home Ministry’s three-month suspension on the two publications, Sin Chew Daily reported today.
According to Chinese language newspaper, the High Court refused, however, to grant a temporary stay order against the suspension.
This means that the three-month printing ban that started on July 27 will continue to run even as the publisher gears up for its legal challenge against the Home Ministry.
Citing government lawyer Alice Loke Yee Ching, local news portal New Straits Times Online reported that the High Court has fixed August 12 to hear another application for the suspension to be temporarily lifted pending the end of the judicial review action.
The decision today on the leave for judicial review was made by Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Datuk Asmabi Mohamad.
The judicial review application filed by The Edge Communications Sdn Bhd on July 27 is against the Home Ministry’s secretary-general and the Home Minister.
Malay Mail Online is awaiting a response from the publisher to an email enquiry on today’s court matter.
The Home Ministry had last month suspended the printing permits of The Edge Financial Daily and its weekly sister for three months over their reports on debt-riddled state investor 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
Among the reasons given by the Home Ministry was that the articles had allegedly violated Section 7 (1) of the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984 due to contents that were purportedly “prejudicial or likely to be prejudicial to public order, security or likely to alarm public opinion or is likely to be prejudicial to public interest or national interest".
The Home Ministry had previously claimed that the two publications’ reporting had raised questions and created negative perception by the public towards 1MDB, as well as implicated the government and national leaders.
The ministry also justified the suspension order by pointing out that the 1MDB controversy is under an ongoing investigation and such reporting would be unfair to the state-owned firm and government, news agency Bernama had reported last month.
The Home Ministry had said that failure by The Edge to comply with the suspension order would result in the revocation of its printing permits for the two financial newspapers.
