By now, most journalists in Malaysia would have received a questionnaire from the Home Ministry as part of its plan to “improve” the Printing Presses and Publications Act (PPPA).
That alone is a step in the wrong direction, especially when members of the press and news publishers in the Southeast Asian nation have been calling for the abolition of the law for years.
However, conversations to strengthen the PPPA surfaced in earnest in 2018 – the same year the Barisan Nasional regime was booted out of Putrajaya.
Among the suggestions bandied about is licensing online news platforms, similar to those in the print business, and bringing back the renewal of print licences every three years.
Ironically, this new push comes from a government that had screamed for sweeping institutional reforms before occupying Putrajaya. It won the 15th General Election, in fact, on the backs of these promised reforms. Oddly, it was Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s predecessor, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who had relaxed the PPPA when he was premier.
It is equally baffling that the same ministry is reviewing the controversial Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012, considering allowing bail for certain offences – including crimes against the country, organised crime, and offences under the Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants Act 2007 – but it wants to “strengthen” the PPPA instead.
Since 2018, there have been various stakeholder engagements. This writer has attended at least four of those sessions – some representing Twentytwo13, while others as deputy president of the National Press Club Malaysia. The latest session was held in Putrajaya last week, with a town hall session to be held soon.
And throughout all these engagements, the response from the floor has been nothing but consistent and unequivocal. Abolish the PPPA.
The ‘justification’ to ‘strengthen’ the existing PPPA seems flimsy. In one instance, the reason given by an officer with the ministry was that, “Containers of pornographic books and adult toys are being confiscated at Port Klang regularly.” First off, that sounds more like an enforcement issue, and has nothing to do with the Malaysian printing and press scene. Secondly, that’s worthy of a news story.
However, the retort that came back was equally perplexing and left many news practitioners dumbfounded. “But it’s (the pornographic materials) under printing and publishing…”
The dots were not lining up.
The other rationale for strengthening the PPPA is apparently the 3R conundrum – race, religion, and royalty. The question now is, if a company with government dealings chooses to be transparent about its shareholding, and a member of a royal family holds a large stake, would it be wrong for the press to report it? What about a commentary on why certain sports are dominated by a single race? Would a publication be penalised for highlighting opinions on national schools becoming increasingly ‘religious’, for instance?
The country already has sufficient laws, including the Penal Code, to address any issues concerning the publication of news.
The Edge Weekly and The Edge Financial Daily churned out a series of articles at the height of the 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal. Both publications were slapped with three-month suspensions by the Home Ministry in 2015. Later, in September that year, the Kuala Lumpur High Court revoked the Home Ministry’s decision.
High Court judge Datuk Asmabi Mohamad had said then: “The minister had taken an irrelevant consideration to impose a blanket ban of three months.”
Asmabi, in allowing the judicial review application by the publications, said the respondent (the minister) had breached Section 7(1) of the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984. The judge also said the respondent did not comply with procedural fairness as he did not give particulars of suspension to the applicant.
What assurance do we have that the minister, or future ministers, will not use the law willy-nilly or apply it in a kneejerk reaction to a story just to please his or her bosses, or to make their administration “look good”?
Any move to make it more difficult for the media to operate in this country will certainly hurt Malaysia’s ranking in the World Press Freedom Index. Already, our ranking has taken a beating. Malaysia ranked 73 in 2023 and dropped to 107 in 2024.
The media is already regulated and licensed in other ways. Media organisations are vetted by the Information Department of Malaysia before they are given accreditation tags. To operate a business, media companies must comply with local council regulations, including the application of a business licence.
There is also an attempt to get the buy-in of academicians on the proposed amendments. Several professors and academicians from Universiti Malaya and Universiti Sains Malaysia contribute to this website. Do they now have to worry about their inability to spark discourse?
The media industry is facing multiple disruptions and challenges, including finding a sustainable business model in this digital era. This is especially so for those in the print business. The players don’t need another law hanging over their heads.
Legitimate news websites need to constantly ‘battle’ with questionable entities who claim to be media but simply aggregate news and steal content from other legitimate operators. We are being robbed daily, yet government agencies and even ministries endorse and spend money on these entities because “they have the numbers”.
We also have government agencies, including those within the Home Ministry, that are eager to play media and have no qualms about banning journalists from their events simply for asking questions. Perhaps that is what the ministry should be reviewing.
And whatever happened to the government’s grandiose plans of getting tech giants to pay local media organisations for content?
Of course, publications that promote pornography, deviant teachings, and other things that are illegal in this country must be dealt with. But to lump legitimate news organisations in the same barrel is not right.
Newsrooms operate under a stringent set of rules that are governed by ironclad media ethics. However, there are media organisations that cross the line. And once again, there are already laws in place to deal with them.
The formation of the Malaysia Media Council will somewhat help address these issues. In fact, the Malaysian Media Council Bill is scheduled to be tabled for a second reading in Parliament today.
There are concerns that engagements on the PPPA are being done to merely tick the boxes.
The Fourth Estate is the stalwart of democratic societies, and governments that police the media are a threat to journalism’s autonomy and independence. Any further moves to ‘strengthen’ the PPPA by the government will only stymie, smother, and suffocate Malaysia’s press.
Unless that was the endgame all along…
