.JPG "Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohammad speaks during the LawAsia Constitutional and Rule of Law Conference 2019 at One World Hotel, Petaling Jaya October 4,2019. u00e2u20acu201d Picture by Miera Zulyana")
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 4 — Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad today admitted that he personally feels the need for a law to reign in false news even as he proclaimed his government’s commitment to repeal the Anti-Fake News Act.
The prime minister said he now feels legislation is necessary to prevent the spread of untrue news that is being passed off as “real” news, adding that the challenge is distinguishing between the two.
“So how do you sift through bad news and good news? That is the problem we are faced with today.
“Frankly, I think we need to curb somewhat the use of fake news, but we have to do that without also curbing the real news,” he said after launching the regional LawAsia Constitutional and Rule of Law Conference 2019 here.
The prime minister later told reporters that his Pakatan Harapan (PH) government’s commitment to repeal the law introduced by the Barisan Nasional (BN) will likely face another challenge in Parliament in the coming sitting due to its lack of a supermajority.
“The fact is that we have not been able to get the kind of majority to change the law, so at the moment it is still hanging.
“I don’t know about this sitting, but the government feels that we should do away with the anti-fake news law,” he said when asked if PH would retable the Bill to repeal the controversial law when the Dewan Rakyat reconvenes next week.
De facto law minister Datuk Liew Vui Keong had reaffirmed the government’s intention to retable the Anti-Fake News Act just last month, after its first attempt was rejected by the Senate earlier this year.
