Civil rights group Article 19 has refuted Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's stand that "foreign activists" were the cause of the perception of crackdowns on free speech in Malaysia.

"Criticism of Malaysia's violations of freedom of speech and expression are justified not just by 'foreign activists' but by the many vocal civil society organisations, independent journalists and members of the public in Malaysia," the group said in a statement today.

It also called out Najib's statement that free speech is thriving in Malaysia, saying that it is in stark contrast with the repressive laws and policies imposed on Malaysians for their freedom of speech and expression.

Najib said this in his speech at the Wan-Ifra 16th Asian Media Awards held on April 19.

"Article 19 calls on the government to acknowledge and address the diminishing space for freedom of expression in the country and to ensure that freedom of expression is adequately safeguarded, as guaranteed under Article 10(a) of the Federal Constitution, by reversing repressive legislation and policies," the group said.

Some of the more concerning laws to the group are the Sedition Act 1948, the Communications and Multimedia Act (CMA) 1998, the Official Secrets Act (OSA) 2012, the Printing Presses and Publications Act (PPPA) 1948 and the Film Censorship Act (FCA) 2002.

Recent arrests and charges under the CMA, the group said, suggested that it is no longer just a tool to crack down on high profile figures but also on ordinary social media users.

"Article 19 is concerned about the chilling effect that this could have and the subsequent, forced self-censorship of social media users in Malaysia," it said.

The group's legal analysis of the CMA led it to conclude that the ubiquitous Section 233(1)(a) should be thoroughly revised to more narrowly define what constitutes "improper use of network facilities and services".

The CMA also creates a number of overly broad content-related offences and the licensing scheme for network and applications services lacks adequate safeguards against censorship, Article 19 added.

Najib had also said that "a free press is a guarantor of accountability and transparency", but Article 19 pointed out that Malaysia's media is heavily controlled and curtailed by legislation such as the PPPA.

The group also said that independent news sources are regularly at risk of being investigated, charged or barred from reporting in Malaysia.

It stressed that all these showed that free speech is far from thriving in Malaysia, as claimed by Najib.

Article 19 also called on the government to acknowledge the violations of rights and to reverse repressive legislation and policies.