{"id":6130,"date":"2026-03-30T09:46:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T01:46:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yhalaw.com.my\/?p=6130"},"modified":"2026-03-30T09:46:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T01:46:20","slug":"federal-court-saves-section-233-cma-offensive-and-annoy-remain-constitutional","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yhalaw.com.my\/my\/federal-court-saves-section-233-cma-offensive-and-annoy-remain-constitutional\/","title":{"rendered":"FEDERAL COURT SAVES SECTION 233 CMA: \u2018OFFENSIVE\u2019 AND \u2018ANNOY\u2019 REMAIN CONSTITUTIONAL"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>1. Summary and Facts:<\/strong><br>The Government of Malaysia v Heidy Quah Gaik Li [2026] MLJU 384 concerns on the statements online posted by the respondent, Heidy Quah Gaik Li. In June 2020, the respondent, a human rights activist made a posting in Facebook highlighting the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic within an immigration detention centre, attributing it to substandard conditions and insufficient health and safety measures. Subsequently, she was charged in the Sessions Court under Section 233(1)(a) of the Communications and Multimedia Act (CMA) for allegedly transmitting \u201coffensive\u201d remarks with the intention to \u201cannoy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Sessions Court found the charge defective and granted a DNAA. She then challenged the terms \u201coffensive\u201d and \u201cannoy\u201d as unconstitutional in the High Court, which dismissed her claim. On appeal, the Court of Appeal unanimously ruled the words unconstitutional and struck them down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>2. Legal Issues:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Whether section 233(1)(a) of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1988 is unconstitutional for violating freedom of speech.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Whether the doctrine of proportionality is applicable in determining the impugned words are contravene art 10(2)(a) FC.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Whether the terms \u201coffensive\u201d and \u201cannoy\u201d in Section 233(1)(a) CMA could be justified as a permissible restriction on freedom of speech under Article 10(2)(a) of the Federal Constitution on the ground of \u201cpublic order.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>3. Court\u2019s Findings:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Federal Court allowed the Government\u2019s appeal and set aside the decision of the Court of Appeal.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Section 233(1)(a) of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998<\/strong> is constitutional.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The court ruled that the provision does not violate <strong>Article 10(1)(a)<\/strong> of the Federal Constitution, as freedom of speech is subject to restrictions under <strong>Article 10(2)(a)<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The doctrine of proportionality is not applicable in assessing the constitutionality of the impugned words, as consideration must first be given to the effect of <strong>Article 4(2)<\/strong> of the Federal Constitution (FC).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Section 233(1)(a)<\/strong> serves a legitimate purpose in regulating misuse of digital communication platforms.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The annoyance or offensive effects only individual sensibilities and does not threaten public order and therefore impugned words could not be justified as a restriction under Art 10(2)(a).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>4. Practical Implications:<\/strong><br>This judgment affirms the several principle of laws including:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The courts may apply the doctrine of proportionality when reviewing laws that restrict the constitutional rights.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Section 233(1)(a) of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 remains valid, allowing authorities to regulate improper online communications.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In The Government of Malaysia v Heidy Quah Gaik Li [2026] MLJU 384, the Federal Court overturned the Court of Appeal\u2019s ruling that had struck out the words \u201coffensive\u201d and \u201cannoy\u201d from section 233(1)(a) of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998. The Court held that these terms, when read together with the requirement of intent to annoy, fall within the permissible restrictions on free speech under Article 10(2)(a) of the Federal Constitution. While the impugned words were upheld as constitutional, the respondent\u2019s acquittal was maintained as her Facebook posts criticising immigration detention conditions did not demonstrate the required intent to annoy or harass.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6148,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3581],"tags":[3789,3582,3788,3790,3785,3786,3787],"class_list":["post-6130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-constitutional-law","tag-article-10","tag-constitutional-law","tag-digital-communication-law","tag-federal-constitution-malaysia","tag-freedom-of-speech","tag-public-order","tag-section-233-cma"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yhalaw.com.my\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6130"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yhalaw.com.my\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yhalaw.com.my\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yhalaw.com.my\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yhalaw.com.my\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6130"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/yhalaw.com.my\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6131,"href":"https:\/\/yhalaw.com.my\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6130\/revisions\/6131"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yhalaw.com.my\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yhalaw.com.my\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yhalaw.com.my\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yhalaw.com.my\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}