Putrajaya to initiate second attempt at repealing Anti-Fake News Act
Putrajaya will initiate its second attempt at repealing the Anti-Fake News Act 2018 (AFN) in the upcoming Dewan Rakyat sitting.
Last September, the Anti-Fake News (Abolition) Bill was rejected by the Dewan Negara despite being passed by MPs in the lower house...
Putrajaya will initiate its second attempt at repealing the Anti-Fake News Act 2018 (AFN) in the upcoming Dewan Rakyat sitting.
Last September, the Anti-Fake News (Abolition) Bill was rejected by the Dewan Negara despite being passed by MPs in the lower house.
De facto Law Minister Liew Vui Keong (above) said today the government will re-table the bill in the sitting beginning Oct 7.
“[...] This AFN requires a one-year cooling period (after) it was rejected by the upper house last year.
“And this will be retabled in the coming parliament session to abolish the AFN Act for good,” he said during his officiating address at the Human Rights Commission’s (Suhakam) 20th-anniversary forum in Kuala Lumpur this morning.
Should the new bill be passed in the Dewan Rakyat again, Liew explained that it would automatically be passed by the Dewan Negara regardless of how senators vote.
“It will go through the same process (in the Dewan Rakyat) again, like a new bill that has been introduced. We still have to go through the process where the bill […] will have to be debated again.
“[...] Once it goes to the upper house, then it will just sail through even if the upper house rejects it,” the minister said during a press conference afterwards.
Sedition Act
As with the controversial Sedition Act 1948, Liew disclosed that the Home Ministry was working on “transporting” provisions regarding the royal institution to the Penal Code.
“We don’t want the general public to make slanderous remarks (or) defamatory remarks against our royal institution.
“The provisions that concern the royal institution in the Sedition Act will be transported out and placed under the Penal Code,” he said.
