PUTRAJAYA’S special committee to formulate laws to curb “fake news” should be viewed with serious concern, as it might at the expense of freedom of speech, expression, information and the press, said a lawyers’ group.
New laws could also be open to abuse as questions remain whether the government is able to distinguish “blatantly fabricated” information from critical news reporting that otherwise contains errors, said Lawyers for Liberty (LFL).
“With such a wide web of legislation, is there a need for more laws that can potentially be misused as after all, we see these laws being unfairly and selectively used against those who are perceived as anti-government while those who are pro-government are usually let off,” said LFL executive director Eric Paulsen in a statement today.
“Can we seriously expect the authorities to be the impartial arbiter, or will they arbitrarily interpret unfavourable news as ‘fake news’?
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Azalina Othman Said announced on Tuesday that a task force has been formed to study new laws aimed at tackling fake news, which could threaten political stability, and undermine public order and national security.
The task force may come up with a proposal to submitted to the cabinet for consideration and be brought to Parliament in the next sitting.
The task force met for the first time last week and included representatives from the police, Attorney-General’s Chambers, Legal Affairs Division, National Security Council, Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission, and Communications and Multimedia Ministry.
There are “serious concerns” that disputed or genuine errors in reporting will become a pretext to attack independent media outlets, said Paulsen.
“We have seen Malaysiakini investigated numerous times and its editor-in-chief and CEO charged after uploading a video of an allegedly ‘offensive’ press conference.
“The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) has also arbitrarily blocked access to several websites over genuine reporting that has upset the government, including The Malaysian Insider, causing the news portal to shut down,” he said.
There are enough available laws to tackle offensive speeches or communications, such as the Penal Code, Communications and Multimedia Act, Sedition Act and Printing Presses and Publications Act, he said.
“Attempting to regulate what is ‘true’ or ‘false’ in cyberspace will be futile, as obviously, no one has a monopoly over the ‘truth’,” Paulsen said.
Instead of coming up with new laws, LFL proposed that the government should focus on educating the public to be vigilant and be aware of the sources of information, so that they become more discerning in consuming and sharing news content. – February 2, 2018.
Comments
That Umno is the biggest manufacturer of fake news is manifested in its supreme leader spitting fire in its annual general assembly that calamity will befall the Malays if Umno loses the election, that DAP is anti-Malay and anti-Islam, as well as the party’s organ Utusan Malaysia being regularly punished by the courts for making false accusation against opposition leaders.
And considering Umno’s record of regular abuses of laws to oppress the opposition, could one be blamed if he instinctively surmises this “anti-fake news” legislation as Umno’s latest weapon to supplement the already formidable arsenal of repressive laws to silence dissenting voices, this time, aiming more specifically to gain an upper hand in the currently raging cyber warfare ?
Posted 6 years ago by Kim quek · Reply