We refer to the Malaysiakini report 'You dare to sue, we dare to publish' .

We refer to the recent incident where MCA President cum Transport Minister Ong Tee Keat lodged a police report against a Chinese-language magazine ‘Special Weekly', calling for a probe into the weekly's story to determine if it contravenes section 8(A) of the Printing Press and Publication Act 1984 for publication of false news and Section 500 of the Penal Code for criminal defamation, and the various investigations conducted by the police against politicians such as MP Lim Kit Siang, MP N Gobalakrishnan and Badrul Hisham for allegedly committing ‘criminal defamation'.

We, the undersigned organisations put forth our position as below:-

1. As the professionalism and independence of the media are vital to democratic life, any law, regulation and response to unprofessional and biased conducts of the media must not hurt the two core functions of media, namely as an avenue for public opinion (or known as the fourth estate) and in providing a public sphere for deliberation on public affairs.

Otherwise, the ultimate casualty would be our democratic life.

2. As a recourse when one's reputation is intentionally and maliciously tarnished by media, defamation suits must be exercised with due care and consideration. In all matters, it should be the last resort after all attempts to seek a correction or an apology have failed.

Politicians who enjoy access to public resources due to society's support must gracefully accept the scrutiny of media and public opinion.

Considering the difficulty for ordinary citizens to be informed about the use of governmental power, which inhibits democratic participation, the media must be accorded room for unintentional mistakes, as long as reasonable efforts have been made in investigation and fact verification.

Most important of all, defamation lawsuits against the media by the public figures should be based on proof that the media had intentionally done so to cause damage or there was actual malice instead of unintentional errors.

Thus, only the media will be accorded room to scrutinise public officials.

3. The very existence of the ‘criminal defamation' offence and the harsh penalty for ‘false news', will not only fail to promote professionalism in the media, but actually provides grounds for the state to suppress freedom of expression and information.

That the police are now investigating politicians on criticisms against political opponents under ‘criminal defamation' shows that Section 500 of the Penal Code has mutated into a substitute of the Sedition Act, to protect the powers-that-be.

Therefore, decriminalising defamation, and a total reform of media laws must be placed at the centre of the democratisation.

4. We urge the police not to charge ‘Special Weekly', MP Lim Kit Siang, MP N Gobalakrishnan and Badrul Hisham and others under the offence of ‘criminal defamation' or ‘false reporting' and restrain from any similar investigations in the future.

We also urge Ong and other politicians to utilise their resources and access, to seek clarification from the media or to debate with their detractors, rather than silencing their opponents with defamation suits or much worse police investigation under ‘criminal defamation' or ‘publication of false news'.

5. Being the victims of draconian media laws, the media industry especially ‘Special Weekly' and the Media Chinese International Ltd group it belongs to must unequivocally support the agenda of media law reform and the call for a Parliamentary Select Committee.

In particular, the media must advocate for the decriminalisation of defamation, making defamation a purely civil matter and for the abolishment of the Section 8A of the PPPA (publication of false news).

This will be the litmus test for media organizations' commitment to media freedom. Should a media company be only interested in faulting certain politicians but refuse to condemn the draconian laws, it raises reasonable questions if they secretly desire preserving such laws only to be used against their competitors.

The writer is chairperson, Writers Alliance for Media Independence (Wami). This statement is also endorsed by Liao Kok Fah, chairperson, Civil Rights Committee, Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall (CRC-KLSCAH) and Gayathry Venkiteswaran, executive director, Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ).