Kit Siang urges press to draft their own anti-fake news law

DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang has urged the press to jointly propose a law to combat the proliferation of fake news.

During a visit to the vernacular Tamil Malar's office in Kuala Lumpur today, Lim said the Anti-Fake News Act 2018 was never intended to deal with fake news but was instead drafted as an instrument of oppression and rushed through Parliament right before the last general election.

He said fake news was increasingly influencing society and there was a need to ensure a healthy environment for the news industry to flourish.

"There is a need for legislation on fake news. I would suggest that the newspapers sit down to propose an anti-fake news legislation to the government. That would be good.

"Laws may not just come from the government. It can come from the public. Let this be the first law to come from the press," said Lim.

Lim said that he himself has been a victim of fake news in the past and that he was accused repeatedly of being "anti-Islam", "anti-Malay", "foreign agent" and being a traitor to the country.

Meanwhile, Lim commended Tamil Malar for their commitment to their craft despite being threatened with closure in the past.

"In those darker days, you still stood firm even though they told you that your license "habis" (terminated).

"But you stood firm and you fought for freedom and justice. You fought for Malaysia," he said.

2017 fracas

Lim said he expected Tamil Malar and other Malaysian news organisations to provide the new government with a check-and-balance as this was essential to a functioning democracy.

"I fully support your chairperson for saying that you are going to speak up on government wrongdoing.

"Please speak up. You have my full support. We do not believe in oppression. We encourage what is right," he said.

Tamil Malar was in the news in 2017 when a fracas erupted at its office during which editor Oms Thiagarajan and legal advisor K Saraswathy were roughed up.

The dispute was believed to have been triggered by a report the paper ran about the rental collection of a MIC-owned building in the Federal Territory.

Tamil Malar managing director SM Periasamy said he had invited MIC Federal Territory liaison committee chairperson M Saravanan to his office to tell his side of the story but troublemakers had turned up first.

Saravanan claimed he arrived shortly after that to break-up the melee.

Police later recorded statements from 23 people including Saravanan who was then deputy youth and sports minister. No action was subsequently taken.

In November the same year, Tamil Malar filed a RM50 million defamation suit against Saravanan for allegedly defamatory remarks against the daily. -Mkini