COMMENT | 'Fake news' ordinance creates culture of fear

COMMENT | On Thursday, a new emergency ordinance was promulgated under powers given by the recent proclamation of emergency. The Emergency (Essential Powers)(No 2) Ordinance 2021 (“the ordinance”) came into effect yesterday.

The ordinance revives the much-criticised Anti Fake News Act, which was abolished by Parliament during the time of the Pakatan Harapan government. It criminalises those who "create, offer, publish, prints, distributes, circulates or disseminates" any "fake news" or publication containing fake news, on pain of fines not exceeding RM100,00, a jail term of up to three years, or both.

There are several problems with the ordinance.

Firstly, the definition of "fake news" is very wide. According to the ordinance, "fake news" includes any news, information, data and report which is or are wholly or partly false relating to Covid-19 or the proclamation of emergency.

The ordinance is silent on what constitutes "wholly or partly false". Is whether something is false or true dependent upon whether the information comes from the government? There is every possibility that this will be the case.

For example, if ..