Stern warning to fake news spreaders

KUCH­ING: Those re­spon­si­ble for spread­ing fake news on the Wuhan coro­n­avirus out­break can be jailed for up to two years, warned Sarawak Sarawak’s Deputy Po­lice Com­mis­sioner Datuk Dev Ku­mar.

He said one such case in­volved the ‘news’ that a pa­tient al­legedly in­fected with the coro­n­avirus had been admi ed to Tim­ber­land Med­i­cal Cen­tre here, which went vi­ral on so­cial me­dia re­cently.

“The man­age­ment of Tim­ber­land Med­i­cal Cen­tre has lodged a po­lice re­port yes­ter­day (Tues­day) and the case is be­ing in­ves­ti­gated un­der Sec­tion 505(b) of the Pe­nal Code and Sec­tion 233 of the Com­mu­ni­ca­tions and Mul­ti­me­dia Act (CMA) 1998,” he told a press con­fer­ence yes­ter­day.

Dev Ku­mar, who ear­lier a ended a State Dis­as­ter Man­age­ment Commi ee meet­ing, said po­lice were still in the midst of iden­ti­fy­ing those re­spon­si­ble for the fake news.

Sec­tion 505(b) of the Pe­nal Code makes it a crim­i­nal of­fence for who­ever makes, pub­lishes or cir­cu­lates any state­ment, ru­mour or re­port with in­tent to cause, or which is likely to cause, fear or alarm to the pub­lic, or to any sec­tion of the pub­lic whereby any per­son may be in­duced to com­mit an of­fence against the state or against pub­lic tran­quil­ity.

Those guilty shall be pun­ished with im­pris­on­ment which may ex­tend to two years or with fine or with both, he said.

Sec­tion 233(1)(a) of the CMA makes the im­proper use of net­work fa­cil­i­ties or net­work ser­vices a crim­i­nal of­fence, which car­ries a max­i­mum fine of RM50,000 or a jail term not ex­ceed­ing one year or both.

“The po­lice will not hes­i­tate to take ac­tion against those who are re­spon­si­ble for the of­fences un­der those sec­tions,” added Dev Ku­mar.

Deputy Chief Min­is­ter Datuk Amar Dou­glas Ug­gah, mean­while, de­scribed those spread­ing fake news on the out­break as “very ir­re­spon­si­ble”, adding their ac­tions could trig­ger un­nec­es­sary alarm, dis­rup­tion and con­fu­sion among the pub­lic.

“My ad­vice is to please stop it (spread­ing fake news). Any in­for­ma­tion on the spread of Wuhan coro­n­avirus in Sarawak will of­fi­cially be re­leased by the commi ee, apart from the Min­istry of Health,” he said.

Mean­while in Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian Com­mu­ni­ca­tions and Mul­ti­me­dia Com­mis­sion (MCMC) has de­tained a sus­pect for al­legedly spread­ing fake news on the coro­n­avirus out­break.

A state­ment is­sued by MCMC yes­ter­day stated that the sus­pect, aged 34, was ar­rested in Bangi, Se­lan­gor, at 4pm Tues­day for in­ves­ti­ga­tion on a post­ing that was up­loaded on a Face­book page on Jan 26.

“The con­tent on the coro­n­avirus is found to be false. Also seized were a hand­phone and a SIM card be­long­ing to the sus­pect, which were be­lieved to be used to up­load the con­tent on the Face­book page,” it said.

The case is be­ing in­ves­ti­gated un­der Sec­tion 233 of the Com­mu­ni­ca­tions and Mul­ti­me­dia Act 1998.

NEWS SOURCE: The Borneo Post (Dated:30.01.2020-Front page Headline)