KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 20 — News portal Malaysiakini posted today that it has collected RM688,120, even as it closed its fundraising campaign seeking RM500,000 to pay for its court fine for contempt conviction.
“Malaysiakini is still deliberating on where to channel the excess funds,” the news portal wrote on the matter.
Yesterday, the news portal managed to gather enough to pay for the fine imposed by the Federal Court for contempt within the span of roughly four hours.
Among the biggest contributions came from DAP, with 50 of its MPs, senators, and assemblymen each donating RM1,000 and the party itself donating RM10,000.
PKR also donated RM20,000.
MPs from other political parties were also said to have donated, but the lion’s share of the funds came from members of the public, who donated between RM20 and RM1,000 per person.
On social media, supporters and readers had posted screenshots of their online transactions into Malaysiakini’s bank account to show their solidarity.
The sentencing by Court of Appeal president Tan Sri Rohana Yusuf of the decision by a panel of seven judges was due to Malaysiakini’s facilitation of five readers’ remarks against the judiciary on its website.
The five comments were posted under a June 9, 2020 news report titled “CJ orders all courts to be fully operational from July 1”.
On June 17, the Federal Court allowed the Attorney General to start contempt of court proceedings against Malaysiakini’s operator Mkini Dot Com Sdn Bhd and Malaysiakini’s “Ketua Editor”.
