We refer to the Malaysiakini report Police put a halt to Anwar's speech .

The Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ) is concerned that police are preventing freedom of speech and freedom of association in preventing public talks by the Pakatan Rakyat opposition alliance leader, Anwar Ibrahim.

He was talking about his ongoing sodomy trial and criticising  the federal government during his ‘ceramah’ described in the report above..

Local media also reported that on Jan 25, Anwar was giving a speech to about five hundred people at the car park lot of a public housing area in the capital city when several police went up the stage and interrupted him.

A video of the incident posted on YouTube showed police taking Anwar away and switching off the microphone. The police, however, did not arrest Anwar.

The incident exposes the police's clear disregard of their responsibility under the Malaysian constitution to uphold the right to freedom of speech. The police chief who stopped Anwar was reported to have justified his actions on the grounds that the speech was ‘political’.

CIJ calls on the police to uphold laws that guarantee freedom of speech and assembly.

On another matter, the Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ) welcomes a court decision to quash a ban on a book published by Sisters in Islam (SIS). The ruling has set an important precedent that limits the previously unchecked power of the minister of home affairs under the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984 (PPPA).

On 25 Jan, Justice Mohamad Ariff Mohd Yusof ruled that the state's restriction of fundamental liberties must take into account the proportionality of the restriction. In this case, where less than five percent of the text was being disputed, he argued that the ban was disproportionate.

He also agreed with SIS's concern for procedural propriety, as the government did not inform SIS about the ban. Instead, the organisation learned about the ban through the media, and later confirmed it with the ministry.

The ministry had argued that the book ‘Muslim Women and the Challenge of Islamic Extremism’ was prejudicial to public order, even though the book had been in circulation for two years before the ban. The judge found against this argument.

Though CIJ is pleased that the ruling defines a boundary around the absolute power sanctioned under the PPPA, the law itself is still an effective instrument to curb the free flow of expression and information.

The burden is still on the affected individual(s) to challenge the ministry, and the sheer effort could be discouraging. The ruling in favour of SIS came only after 18 months of marshaling institutional support and resources.

CIJ calls for the repeal of the PPPA as the first step in upholding Article 10 of the federal constitution, which guarantees the right to freedom of speech.

The writer is director, Centre for Independent Journalism.