KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 8 — Kluang MP Wong Shu Qi today accused China Press of “amplifying distorted truths” by publishing what she claimed to be disinformation about DAP, now facing a backlash over the government’s move to teach khat in vernacular schools.

The DAP lawmaker claimed the Chinese newspaper hit a new low for running an article sourced from a dubious Facebook page without vetting the information, likely related to the party’s central leadership emergency meeting on Monday.

“A mainstream newspaper China Press has published a piece of ‘disinformation’ about a DAP meeting recently by quoting a questionable Facebook post created an anonymous and possible fake account,” Wong said in a statement.

“This is the new low of Malaysian media ethic in the post-truth era when a mainstream media allowed themselves to be deceived by a fake account on social media,” she added.

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The DAP’s central leadership held a meeting late on Monday night following ethnic Chinese backlash over the Education Ministry’s plan to start Arabic calligraphy lessons for Year Four pupils in vernacular schools from next year.

Party secretary-general Lim Guan Eng told reporters after nearly five hours of deliberation that minority communities were alarmed by the policy, likely due to the assumption that the subject was a surreptitious attempt at proselytisation.

Wong did not reveal the content of the news under question, but said several reporters had avoided asking her about the dubious Facebook publication. Despite this, Wong suggested China Press continued to report the information.

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“Perhaps they too knew that such news was fake and dangerous for society... we know fake news exist in social media, or as it was before, in kopitiam and mamak stall gossip,” she said.

“But when a mainstream media — our last bastion of truth — resorted to fake news, this is a bad sign indeed.”

The MP, a former journalist, said the episode should draw attention again to the need for ethical media practice.

“Mainstream media, including the increasingly popular online news portals, should do their best to stop disinformation, and not to amplify distorted truths,” she said.