KUALA LUMPUR – The federal government has gazetted an ordinance that renders the “creation, offering, and publishing” of “fake news” related to Covid-19 unlawful, raising concerns over press freedom.
The Emergency (Essential Powers) (No. 2) Ordinance 2021 dated today (March 11) stipulates that any person who fails to comply will be liable to a fine not exceeding RM100,000 or a maximum three years of prison, or both.
This applies to any person who likely caused fear or alarm to the public by creating, offering, publishing, distributing, circulating or disseminating any “fake news”.
Under the ordinance, “fake news” is defined as any news, information, data and reports “which is wholly or partly false relating to Covid-19 or the proclamation of emergency, whether in the forms of features, visuals or audio recordings or in any other form capable of suggesting words or ideas”.
Police have been authorised to arrest any person believed to have committed or attempted to commit an offence under the ordinance, which has also overstepped the Evidence Act 1950.
Police and other authorised enforcers are also allowed to access computerised data from a computer or other devices.
This means that the accused must provide their passwords, encryption codes, software or hardware to allow access to the data in question.
The ordinance also applied to non-citizens or those who committed the offence in any place outside the country. – The Vibes, March 11, 2021
