FAKE NEWS LAW DRAFT TO REACH CABINET AFTER CNY
Law will benefit all, not just govt leaders, says Azalina
THE draft on the law to curb false news is expected to be tabled to the cabinet after Chinese New Year, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said said.
She said among matters highlighted were the definition of false news, the agency that would be responsible to evaluate fake or real news, as well as the need to evaluate whether a comment was with malicious intent.
“We have drafted the act and it’s up to the cabinet to evaluate the law that they want in our country.
“This is for the benefit of all and not only for the government leadership. So, it has to be discussed with an open mind,” she said after opening a seminar and special discussion on the direction of the National Legal Aid Foundation (YBGK) here yesterday.
Earlier, she chaired the third meeting of the special committee on the proposed law to curb fake news, which was attended by representatives from non-governmental organisations, the media, community leaders and law agencies.
Last month, Azalina said the government would form a special committee to study the proposed law to curb fake news in the country.
Prior to this, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said the formulation of the law was necessary because the people could be instigated to hate the government or commit rebellion due to the influence of fake news.
Azalina, in her speech, said YBGK had handled 846,905 cases since it began operations in 2012 to December last year, with an average of more than 10,000 cases a month.
She said the statistics showed that YBGK’s legal aid services in civil and syariah cases were wellaccepted.
She said the foundation had a panel of 2,332 lawyers.
Besides YBGK, she said government agencies, non-governmental organisations, political parties and institutions of higher learning also provided legal aid services to the public, such as the Legal Aid Department or the Legal Aid Centre.
Hence, she said, there was a possibility of overlap of power among the agencies, especially those involving public funds.
She said the seminar yesterday was to decide on YBGK’s direction so that it would benefit all quarters.