BUTTERWORTH, Aug 10 (NNN-BERNAMA) — A Sin Chew Daily journalist today learned a hard lesson for flying a drone close to a government building – the Butterworth Session Court – when he was hauled up by the police and had his drone confiscated.
It is learnt that the reporter was detained for illegally flying a drone to capture video and photographs of a group of people gathering outside the court before the arrival of former Finance Minister, Lim Guan Eng to face a second corruption charge related to the Penang undersea tunnel and main roads project here.
Police stopped the reporter at about 9.15 am and took him to the Butterworth Police station to record his statement. He was released with a warning at 11 am.
Seberang Perai Utara (SPU) District Police Chief ACP Noorzainy Mohd Noor said members of the public are not allowed to fly drones around government buildings.
“We would like to warn all including media practitioners not to fly drones around the government complex. It is illegal and we will take action,” he told Bernama when contacted.
At the court earlier, Lim was charged with using his position when he was chief minister of Penang to receive a gratification of more than RM3.3 million to help a company secure the Penang roads and undersea tunnel projects.
