“I believe in the freedom of the press and I cannot stop them from reporting the proceedings,” judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan said.

The defence had applied for the gag order when 21st prosecution witness Rizal Mansor, a former aide to Rosmah, took the stand.

Zaini said he was guided by the law and asked defence lawyers Jagjit Singh and Akberdin Abdul Kader under what circumstances he could stop the media from reporting the content of Rizal’s statement.

Akberdin said certain portions of the statement were opinionated, irrelevant, prejudicial and amounted to character assassination of Rosmah.

Jagjit said there must be a gag order in the interest of justice.

The judge said if that was the case, the media could not report on trials when witnesses were giving evidence.

“Sorry. I am not minded to stop the press from reporting what is in the statement,” he said.

Ad hoc prosecutor Gopal Sri Ram said Rizal was merely stating the instruction he received from Rosmah.

“This (evidence) must be allowed as Rizal’s evidence only shows her disposition. In a corruption trial, the accused will be disparaged,” he said.

At the outset of today’s proceedings, the defence complained that some parts of Rizal’s statement were prejudicial to Rosmah and wanted them expunged.

Zaini said he would hear Rizal’s testimony and decide at the end of the prosecution’s case whether to accept his evidence.

He said the defence could cross-examine Rizal to challenge his evidence.

In his statement, Rizal, who worked for Rosmah from 2009 to May 2018, said he was the media officer for the accused, who is also the wife of former prime minister Najib Razak.

He said that from his experience working for Rosmah, she was a capable and strategic planner to achieve a desired objective.

“She is very concerned about her image, reputation and public perception as the wife of the prime minister,” he said.

In 2012, he said, on the instruction of Rosmah, he set up a cyber trooper team to monitor social media critical of her.

“She gave me RM100,000 a month to sustain the team in order to respond to negative reports about her,” he said.

Among the reports were that she was in possession of branded handbags, she spent lavishly on her daughter’s wedding, meetings were held over government contracts, and she was the de facto prime minister.

Rizal said he had also collected money from individuals on behalf of Rosmah.

He said there were many people who wanted to meet her and most of them were entrepreneurs and contractors lobbying for projects.

“They want to establish a good working relationship with the accused and to have access to Najib to get government projects,” he said, adding that businessmen would give her presents, including cash, in appreciation for her assistance.

Rizal said since he had won the confidence of Rosmah, he was assigned to accept presents on her behalf from businessmen in the name of “political contribution”.

He said Rosmah was influential in the government circles, and civil servants would go all the way to oblige her.

“My observation is that she was seen as a fearful person and capable of putting government officers who refused to accede to her demand in cold storage,” he said.

Rosmah, 69, is charged with three counts of corruption for allegedly soliciting RM187.5 million from Jepak Holdings managing director Saidi Abang Samsudin as an inducement to help the company secure the RM1.25 billion solar hybrid project in rural Sarawak schools.

She is also accused of receiving bribes amounting to RM6.5 million from Saidi between 2016 and 2017.

Early this year, the prosecution withdrew the charge against Rizal for soliciting and receiving bribes for himself and Rosmah.

The hearing before Zaini continues.