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Assignment Cover Sheet
Programme Course Code and title
BACHELOR IN MASS COMMUNICATION (BMCMI) COM 3215 – Communication Law
Student name and ID Student ID
Goh Yan Ching I
Assignment Completion date Issued Date Submitted on
Assignment 1 4/3/2017 Week 9 5/3/
Assignment title
Recently the government had stated that there should be laws to curb fake news. Some ar the opinion that to curb fake news should be viewed with “serious concern” as it might b the expense of freedom of speech, expression, information and the press. What is your view on the statement above. (include relevant cases and laws in Malaysia)
With the development of technology and various media, the coverage of news and information was becoming wider and wider, it can cross different countries, surmount languages, races, and even surpass human values. With the arrival of the era of free speech, the transmission of information has become more transparent and rapid. The popularization of information and news let human can communicate with globalization and even promote the human’s attention to certain social consciousness or the trends of the world. However, this has also brought many disadvantages to our world. One of the biggest problem is fake news. Intended people would use these media to optionally publish his or her own opinion without any responsibility. With the slogan of freedom of speech, they use social media to publish anonymously and even wantonly spread the fake news.
In fact, fake news can always refer to a political means, people usually use it to damage an organization’s, a person’s, or a particular group’s reputation. In addition, fake news is not limited to political means, but it can be used as a means of entertainment or business. (Merriam-webster.com, 2017) Under this situation, federal constitution which as the supreme law of the federation, it is also the shield that used by government to defense fake news. For examples, Article 10 Freedom of speech, Assembly, and Association. This article is used to judge whether the information or news spread by the citizen can be accepted by the government or not. The limitation of law can basically maintain social peace and reduce distrust and shake among citizen, which is absolutely beneficial for the development of national economy and situation.
If viewed from a positive perspective, I think the reason why our government wants to curb fake news is that in recent year, the degree of freedom of Malaysia’s media has become more and more open, which has created a serious unhealthy social atmosphere. Unlike Malaysia, the government of Singapore will seriously look at any fake news about government of political figures. If there have any citizen who flagrantly humiliate the prime minister on social media and spread any fake news about the government, he or she must be
the government in recent years. The Prime Minister Najib Razak mentioned in 2018 Budget
speech, in 2017, Malaysia’s economic growth rate was 5.9%, which being judged to be the
twenty third competitive country in the world with low unemployment. Even if the inflation
rate grew by 3.5%, but the national income grew by around 6%. Besides that, Malaysia’s
national credit rating is at A level, so there is no any possibility of national bankruptcy. (In
southeast Asia, only Singapore and Malaysia are in A, and European countries such as Spain
and Italy are in B). (NST ONLINE, 2017) Some intended people continue to spread the news,
indicating that the public debt is too high and if the government continues to take power,
Malaysia will be bankrupt. This series of unwarranted rhetoric has been deliberately
amplified by social media users. As a result, those fake news which said Malaysia will
bankrupt eventually became the truth of the people's mind.
In recent years, even if the government is aware of the seriousness of fake news, I think they do not dare to take a lot of action. Because it is close to the general election, most people will definitely think that the government wants to suppress and hide the truth. In addition to the recent case which about the song of Namewee, government through Section 298A of the Penal Code and Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act prosecute Namewee and against him over his controversial “like a dog” video. (The Star Online, 2018) In this case, it is clearly felt that people are resisting the government's use of law to restrict freedom of speech. Many people abused the government more strongly on the social media because of this incident. This has led to the failure of the government to solve and change the problems left behind in the last election. Even by this year's general election, I believe the same situation will still happen.
Is speech not free enough in Malaysia? This is one of the questions I've been curious about since secondary school. The premise of freedom of speech is that the people must be responsible for their speech, and the things that are put forward must be based on truth. People must make the speech intellectually so that they can truly achieve the purpose of freedom of speech. In the absence of these conditions, freedom of speech can only be said to create a bad atmosphere, cause social morbid state, and more likely to jeopardize the security of the country. In Malaysia, many people think that the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984, Internal Security Act, Official Secrets Act 1972 and the Sedition Act 1948, are limiting our freedom of speech and even news media. But, because of people deliberately use the gray zone of freedom of speech, the role
of federal constitution is also significant reduce. This is the biggest problem that I think Malaysia is facing at the moment.
In my opinion, the quality Malaysia news media and citizen are both worrying. For the citizen, in addition to a small number of intellectuals, they would objectively understand the finance and management of Malaysia, the rest of adults and teenagers are imperceptibly influenced by social media and even spread those fake news as well. I think Malaysia should not worry about the freedom of speech or the truth will be covered. Instead, we should be worried that the fake news will blur the truth. For the media, most of them just want to get the news value, many will be very tricky to convert words and truth into words that can interest people, or even distort things. Because of these two reasons, even if there are more legal restrictions, the situation will be the same. Even if we change the government, as long as the people and media do not change, fake news will always exist, and even continue to play a serious role in the international status of Malaysia. From an objective point of view, I absolutely support the government use laws to curb fake news.
3. Merriam-webster.com. (2017). The Real Story of 'Fake News'. [online] Available at:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/the-real-story-of-fake-news
[Accessed 3 Mar. 2018].
4. Paige Chelvan, V. (2015). Blogger Roy Ngerng ordered to pay PM Lee S$150,000 in
damages. Channel Newsasia. [online] Available at: https://
www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/blogger-roy-ngerng-ordered-to-pay-pm-
lee-s-150-000-in-damages-8223516 [Accessed 3 Mar. 2018].
5. Shukry, M. (2018). Malaysia Gears Up for Election as Najib Targets ‘Fake News’.
[online] Bloomberg.com. Available at: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/
articles/2018-01-05/malaysia-gears-up-for-election-as-najib-targets-fake-news
[Accessed 3 Mar. 2018].
6. The Star Online (2018). Chong to Nazri: Be a man, apologise to Robert Kuok. The
Star Online. [online] Available at: https://www.thestar.com.my/news/
nation/2018/02/28/chong-to-nazri-be-a-man-apologise-to-robert-kuok/ [Accessed 3
Mar. 2018].
