The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), in condemning the legislative amendment to the Sedition Act, has called on the government to stop using the law to threaten and persecute independent journalists.

The government should repeal the "outrageously punitive" amendments to the Act and should instead refocus on passing laws that guarantee freedom of the press, including the online media, the independent, non-profit organisation that works to safeguard press freedom worldwide said.

"The strengthening of Malaysia's already draconian Sedition Act shows how desperate Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak has become to silence media criticism of his government," CPJ's senior Southeast Asia representative Shawn Crispin said in a statement yesterday.