Freedom Of Speech In Malaysia Case Law
In december of 2019 parliament successfully scrapped the anti fake news act 2018.
Freedom of speech in malaysia case law. Article 10 of the federal constitution freedom of speech assembly and association in part. This case expands expression at least temporarily. The penalties for exceeding the right to freedom of speech and expression vary depending which law s the person was charged under and the penalties imposed for breaching that law s. Malaysia saw some promising improvements since may 2018.
Journalism and the malaysian bar council are among those who have expressed concern about the implications of the case for media freedom. Law government and international studies colgis university utara malaysia. If there s one thing that can be established off hand it s that freedom of speech is indeed a constitutional right under article 10 of the federal constitution with some limitations. For example people convicted under section 298 of the penal code for uttering words with the deliberate intention of wounding another person s religious or racial feelings can be fined and or jailed up to 3.
Article 10 of the constitution of malaysia guarantees malaysian citizens the right to freedom of speech freedom of assembly and freedom of association unlike comparable provisions in constitutional law such as the first amendment to the united states constitution article 10 entitles citizens to such freedoms as are not restricted by the government instead of absolutely guaranteeing those. He has also authored two books entitled the public sphere and media politics in malaysia cambridge scholars publishing 2009 and freedom of political speech and social responsibility in malaysia university kebangsaan malaysia. For now the case strikes down a longstanding provision of malaysia s sedition act which made it possible for the government to criminally prosecute an individual for seditious speech without proving that the individual had seditious intent. The decision is likely to be appealed to malaysia s supreme court.
1 subject to clauses 2 3 and 4. On 22 may 2018 pakatan harapan affirmed that the government was fully committed to promoting a free and independent media that would be able to report without fear of reprisal. Freedom of speech and the. Malaysia s freedom of the press is derived from the freedom of speech.
In the cases of defamation which suit to test the limits of freedom of speech in cyberspace would be the case of the new straits times press m bhd ors v ahirudin bin attan 2 mlj 814. In the university kebangsaan malaysia 4 ukm 4 case on 1 november 2011 the court of appeal ruled that section 15 5 of the universities and university colleges act uuca which prohibits students from getting involved in politics is unconstitutional and violates freedom of speech.