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PETALING JAYA: Police said today that it is illegal to record any police operation in the middle of an investigation.
They said this also applies to the attempted break-in at the home of a student leader from Universiti Malaya on Saturday.
In the incident, Kajang police arrested former Malaya University New Youth Association (Umany) leader Wong Yan Ke, 24, who was filming the operation and broadcasting it on Facebook Live.
Wong was filming the raid on the home of the current president of the movement, Robin Yap Wen Qing.
Several Umany members are under investigation for the association’s Facebook post titled “Yang di-Pertuan Agong must not intervene in national affairs.”
In a statement today, the head of the Federal Criminal Investigation Department, Huzir Mohamed, said that all police investigations were confidential in nature.
He said police arrested a 23-year-old man, whom he did not name, for “ignoring police orders to stop filming the attempted raid” and for “disrupting the investigation process.”
He said that the refusal to follow the orders of the police was an obstruction and disobedience towards a public servant, a crime under articles 186 and 188 of the Penal Code.
“You have to remember that each investigation is confidential and cannot be disclosed at will, which is most widely disseminated on social networks. While it is not a crime for one to take photos or videos, if it is spread on social media, it can affect an investigation.
“It also constitutes abusive posting online under Section 233 of the Communication and Multimedia Act of 1998,” he said.
Huzir said the man refused to cooperate with the search officers despite being shown police authority cards.
He said police were there to raid a home under Section 8 (2) of the Sedition Act of 1948, which allows them to search a location without a warrant if they feel they might lose key evidence while obtaining a warrant.
He also said that the police had received 41 police reports about Umany’s post.
Wong was detained for 15 hours and is free on bail.
After his arrest, the president of the Bar Association, Salim Bashir, said that recording a police raid is not a crime.
Another lawyer claimed that the “rough treatment” of the former student leader who recorded the police raid was “a clear case of assault” and asked Wong to submit a police report.
Activist Ng Yap Hwa filed a report against Wong’s arrest at the Petaling police station last night.
