The recent proposal to toughen existing laws to fight terrorism will not only affect lawyers and accountants but also journalists.

Amendments to the Penal Code, which was submitted to parliament early this month, will punish not just terrorists, but also those who provide them with "services or facilities".

The proposed Penal Code (Amendment) Bill 2003 provides tough sentences of up to life imprisonment for anyone who harbours or interferes with the arrest of terrorists, recruits members into a terrorist group or provide them with explosives or facilities such as meeting places.

If terrorist acts result in death, then those who helped the terrorists can be hanged.

"These changes are generally bad news for journalists and for the media," said Zulkifli Sulong ( right ), editor of PAS party organ Harakah .

He said that journalists, in carrying out their task to inform the public, must often protect the confidentiality of their sources.

"If we can be threatened with fines or imprisonment for not revealing our sources, how can we do our job properly?" he said.

Draconian laws

Lawyer Mohd Hanipah Maidin said that the new proposals will further threaten journalists' ability to maintain the confidentiality of their sources.

"We are already living in a system with such draconian laws as the Sedition Act and so forth. With these new proposals, our freedoms are even more curtailed," he said.

"Lawyers have laws such as the Legal Profession Act (1976) and the Evidence Act (1980) that can be used to protect ourselves (while performing their duties).

"Journalists, however, have no such recourse to the law should there be any abuse by the government authorities," he added.

Respect for confidentiality as enshrined in the journalists' code of ethics is not codified into the law, said Hanipah.

The proposed 'terrorism laws' have elicited an outcry from both lawyers and accountants.

The Bar Council and the Malaysian Institute of Accountants have called for a reconsideration of the proposed changes because they placed an overwhelming burden on lawyers and accountants.

They have also expressed concerned for their members whose services or facilities were used by terrorists.

Broad definition

Another grouse is the drafters' failure to adequately define "the terrorist act", which are not being differentiated from other crimes.

"The bill makes such references to 'terrorist acts' as one that involves, or threatens to involve, serious bodily injury to people, damage to property, and creates a risk to the health or safety of the public. But how is this different from other 'crimes'?" said one lawyer who requested anonymity.

"If I cause serious bodily injury to you, or threaten to do so, does that make me a terrorist?" he asked.

Hanipah lamented that many of the criminal acts cited in the proposed amendments are being included in the so-called 'terrorism' bill.

"There are already provisions in the law for many of these 'terrorists' acts. Why do we need a whole new set of laws?" he asked.