KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 29 — The High Court today set aside a gag order on Tan Meng Kheng after ruling that the Magistrate Court had no grounds to block the Mentega Terbang producer from issuing public statements about his trial.

High Court judge Datuk Mohd Jamil Bin Hussin said the magistrate who gave the order failed to disclose any obvious or imminent threat to the fairness of the trial, Lawyers for Liberty said in a short statement to the media.

"The Respondents failed to satisfy that there is a real and substantial risk to the fairness of the trial. The proceeding before the Magistrate did not disclose any obvious or imminent threat to the fairness of the trial,” the group said.

"There is no material before the court to show that there is real and substantial risk to the fairness of the trial.”

Tan and co-director Khairi Anwar Jailani claimed trial to charges that they had hurt the "religious feelings of a person” through their film, Mentega Terbang, which centres on a 15-year-old Aishah and her curiosity about faith and the afterlife because of her mother’s declining health.

Putrajaya banned the film Mentega Terbang from any screening in Malaysia in September last year following protests from conservatives, who claimed the movie is a threat to the Islamic faith.

On January 17, the Magistrate Court imposed a gag order but Tan and Khairil filed for a revision shortly after.

LFL said the High Court viewed the gag order as improper.