LAWYERS, activists and a satirist voiced “extreme concern” over today’s tabling of Anti-Fake News Bill 2018, saying it will signal the end of freedom of expression in Malaysia. 

“The bill has far reaching implications for democracy and human rights, and should it be passed, will be the death knell for the freedoms of speech and the press in Malaysia,” said Lawyers for Liberty executive director Eric Paulsen

The bill is an “overbroad piece of legislation that exaggerates the problem of fake news,” he said. 

“It criminalises ‘fake news’ as defined in the bill to include any content ‘which is or are wholly or partly false’,” said Paulsen, who called the bill “extremely vague” as it does not clearly define the malicious falsehood required for the  offence. 

Paulsen said the bill also does not clearly define the severity of the fake news required to attract criminal culpability, nor the defences open to persons accused of the offence.

He said the “extremely open-ended” bill raises serious questions on how the implementing authorities such as the police, Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission and the Attorney-General’s Chambers will decide what amounts to true or false news.

“Given that just five days ago, Jailani Johari, the Deputy Communications and Multimedia Minister claimed that other than government-verified information, any news on 1MDB is deemed as fake news, we can see that what is determined to be true or false is likely what the authorities deem it to be,” he said. 

Paulsen said Section 6 of the act puts the burden of deleting content that could be false not only upon those creating or sharing content, but also on server hosts, forum  moderators, and even WhatsApp chat and Facebook admins. 

Section 3, meanwhile, provides for extra-territorial application of the law so long as the fake news concerns Malaysia.

“It is altogether too easy to see foreign press or commentators being targeted and punished for not toeing the official line when  reporting on controversial issues on Malaysia. 

“It should be noted that extra-territorial jurisdiction is not unusually invoked, save for extremely serious crimes like  piracy and terrorism. This is another example of the exaggeration and overreach of the bill.”

Paulson called the bill “sheer overkill and an exaggeration of the problem of ‘fake news’” and called for the bill to be  discarded “in its entirety”. 
 
He added if the government is truly serious about tackling fake news, it would instead set up a bipartisan parliamentary select committee.

For the offence of spreading fake news, the bill proposes a penalty of 10 years in jail or a fine of up to RM100,000 and RM3,000 a day for each day the offence continues.

Journalists group Gerakan Media Merdeka (Geramm) said the government should not be the sole judge of what constitutes fake news.

“The government should not monopolise the definition of fake news.

“As a group that fights for journalists and media practitioners, Geramm believes the real weapon to combat ‘fake news’ is not a new act, but the actual enforcement of the freedom of information,” it said in a statement today, adding that all parties should respect the media and not restrict access to information via the fake news act.

It said it is concerned that the anti-fake news law defines fake news as any news, information, data and report that are partially or fully fake, displayed in the form of writing, visual, recording, audio or any other media..

Geramm also found the proposed RM500,000 fine and 10 years jail time for the offence to be “overkill”.

Political cartoonist Zunar said the government’s employment of a “one-sided and bias reporting” style in mainstream media has caused Malaysians to lose faith in the media.

“(As such) people turn to the internet and social media as alternatives,” he said on Facebook.

Zunar said Prime Minister Najib Razak is “running scared” as a result  of reports on the 1MDB scandal on the internet, which are affecting his “already shaken” position in the 14th general election.

“He had to introduce another draconian law to survive. The fake news law is a new weapon to cover up corruption.” – March 26, 2018.