The Court of Appeal has unanimously struck down as unconstitutional the words “offensive” and “annoy” in the previous iteration of Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 (CMA), which criminalises the online transmission of offensive comments.
Justice Lee Swee Seng said the words violated Article 10(2)(a) of the Federal Constitution, read together with Article 8.
He also said that a charge of offending and annoying a third party could not be construed as going against public order.
“We find that the impugned words of ‘offensive’ and ‘annoy’ are not a permissible restriction to the freedom of expression under our Federal Constitution.
“We therefore strike down that particular provision as constituting an offence (against the constitution),” he said in partly allowing the appeal by activist Heidy Quah to nullify the previous version of Section 233.
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