THE Muslim Youth Movement of Malaysia (Abim) has been monitoring the issue of media freedom in Malaysia recently, particularly touching on the offence allegedly committed by Al Jazeera for failing to abide by the compulsory licensing regulation imposed on Al Jazeera 101 East documentary.

Abim believes the action to punish the media for licensing reasons is not proportionate and appears merely as an attempt to curb media freedom.

Abim supports the principle of rule of law, where everyone must abide by national laws as tools to maintain public order and fend off any defamation or manipulation of news circulated. Nevertheless, any such limitations can only be put in place for reasons necessary with the aim of protecting the rights of others, or based on the requirements of public order, national defence, public health or public morals.

Furthermore, any rules to restrict rights must be implemented reasonably and proportionately between the restrictions and the objective sought, so that the element of natural justice will always be upheld. In this specific case, the right to be heard and rules against bias must be conserved in ensuring the law does not cause injustice towards Al Jazeera as a final legal outcome. 

Conversely, the authorities may file a defamation suit if there is clear misrepresentation or manipulation of news aired.

Accordingly, Abim is of the view that the authorities are obliged to set clear proportionate guidelines to all media practitioners before imposing any punishments, particularly on licensing, and provide reasonable grounds to that end. – July 23, 2020.

* Muhammad Faisal Abdul Aziz is the president of Muslim Youth Movement of Malaysia.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.