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Bangkok (dpa) – Press freedom in Malaysia took the biggest hit of any country during the past year, according to an annual ranking published by non-governmental organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF, Reporters Sans Frontiers) on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
RSF said it had pushed Malaysia down 18 places, to 119, even before the government last month imposed a \u00abso-called \u201canti-fake news\u201d decree,\u00bb which enables \u00abauthorities to impose their own version of the truth.\u00bb<\/p>\n
The fake news law was promulgated after Malaysia’s king, Sultan Abdullah, complied with a mid-January request by Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin to declare a state of emergency after new daily coronavirus case numbers surged.<\/p>\n
Violators face penalties of up to six years in jail and fines of as much as 500,000 ringgit (121,000 US dollars) for spreading what authorities deem \u00abfake news\u00bb about the coronavirus pandemic or about emergency rule.<\/p>\n
The emergency declaration allows for rule-by-decree and is scheduled to run until August, with parliament suspended.<\/p>\n
Opposition politicians accuse the government of using the pandemic as a fig leaf for authoritarianism.<\/p>\n
Muhyiddin’s predecessor, Mahathir Mohamad, on Tuesday petitioned the king, whose role is mostly ceremonial, to rescind the emergency decree. \u00abPeople are starting to get angry towards his majesty,\u00bb Mahathir said.<\/p>\n
RSF said on Tuesday that Malaysia was \u00aba much more favourable environment\u00bb for journalists before Mahathir was replaced by Muhyiddin in March last year.<\/p>\n
Since then, RSF said, \u00abthe restoration of more authoritarian rule in 2020 has led to prosecutions, police searches, expulsions (of journalists and a whistleblower).\u00bb<\/p>\n
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Bangkok (dpa) – Press freedom in Malaysia took the biggest hit of any country during the past year, according to an annual ranking published by non-governmental organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF, Reporters Sans Frontiers) on Tuesday. RSF said it had pushed Malaysia down 18 places, to 119, even before the government last month imposed a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1089869,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1089868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-actualidad"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t