Dr Mahathir says government committed to repeal Anti-Fake News Act, but personally feels law necessary.
Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said today Malaysia’s Anti-Fake News Act may be amended, instead of being repealed, because the country needs to curb the spread of false information.
The prime minister said he now feels legislation is necessary to prevent the spread of untrue news that is being passed off as “real” news, adding that the challenge is distinguishing between the two.
“So how do you sift through bad news and good news? That is the problem we are faced with today.
“So now we have to look at possibly amending the law, which would mean the law would still be in place.
“Many people now have the opportunity to voice their views via alternative media, and they use it for promoting bad news and false news. Frankly, we have to curb the problem of fake news, but we cannot curb true news,” he said at the LAWASIA Constitutional Law and Rule of Law Conference here today.
Dr Mahathir said the Anti-Fake News Act is good in the sense that it deals with false information, but the government must not abuse the law. He said when the government proposed to repeal the Anti-Fake News Act, some people said the law was necessary as it will prevent fake news from spreading.
The prime minister later told reporters that his Pakatan Harapan (PH) government’s commitment to repeal the law introduced by the Barisan Nasional (BN) will likely face another challenge in Parliament in the coming sitting due to its lack of a supermajority.
“The fact is that we have not been able to get the kind of majority to change the law, so at the moment, it is still hanging.
“I don’t know about this sitting, but the government feels that we should do away with the anti-fake news law,” he said when asked if PH would retable the Bill to repeal the controversial law when the Dewan Rakyat reconvenes next week.
De facto law minister Datuk Liew Vui Keong had reaffirmed the government’s intention to retable the Anti-Fake News Act just last month, after its first attempt was rejected by the Senate earlier this year.