AZALINA: DRAFT LAW TO CURB SPREAD OF FAKE NEWS READY
Special committee formed to study law to meet today, says Azalina
THE draft of a new bill to curb fake news is ready, says Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said.
She said a special committee that was formed to study the law would meet for the second time today to discuss technical issues before it was submitted to the cabinet.
“The views of the Attorney General’s Chambers, university experts and agencies are extremely important in fine-tuning this law.”
“It is clear that current acts such as the Printing Presses and Publications Act of 1984, which had been used for over 30 years is no longer relevant.
“Apart from this, this new law has to be read with current laws such as the Computer Crimes Act of 1997 as well as the Communications and Multimedia Act of 1998.”
“Therefore, there are a number of technical matters that needs fine-tuning,” she said after the launch of the Legal Aid Trust Account here, yesterday.
Azalina said the government also hoped that the proposed law could be brought to Parliament in March.
She rejected claims from certain quarters that the law would only be used to protect politicians.
“Politicians are not the only ones feeling the backlash of fake news. Artistes and regular people are also affected.
“Changes taking place globally mean that there is no longer proper screening of fake news,” she added.
The special committee was formed on Jan 30, following an announcement by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak that a law was needed to curb fake news as people could be instigated to hate the government or cause uprisings.
A special committee was then formed involving the police, A-GC, the National Security Council and the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission.
Najib also agreed that the committee should have participants from non-government organisations and member of parliaments to ensure that government efforts in addressing the issue had the support of various quarters through the engagement of all stakeholders.
In Kuantan, Pahang Umno Youth chief Shahar Abdullah said the government’s proposal to create a new act to deal with the spread of false news would be able to protect millennials and also encourage the development of a knowledgeable society.
He described the formulation of such law as a step forward and a timely move to elevate the country to a higher level.
He said to achieve that goal, society should be provided with accurate, fair and credible news instead of manipulated false information, which circulated on social media until it caused confusion and disunity.
“Social media is a platform that helps to foster close relationships, but it becomes a problem when a lot of false news is spread. This confuses the people as they are not able to judge between true or false news.
“This then leads to suspicion among one another in the community.
“The priority is that we want to protect the millennial generation in school and university as many find it difficult to process all the information that is out there.
“Let the law determine whether a certain news that has been spread is genuine.
“The new Act will safeguard the interests of everyone to ensure harmony can be preserved,” he said yesterday.