Citing the need to combat so-called “fake news”, Malaysia’s Communications and Multimedia Minister, Saifuddin Abdullah, launched a new non-stop television news channel, run by state broadcaster Radio Television Malaysia (RTM) on Thursday.

“Instead of saying having to wait for the 8.00 p.m. news, you can now get it whenever you want,’’ the minister said.

Abdullah said the channel’s “main purpose” is to offer “factual and verified news’’ that will “help the public determine what is true and what is false’’.

In October last year, Malaysia’s parliament ditched a 2018 law that made fake news a crime.

That short-lived Anti-Fake News Act was the brainchild of then-Prime Minister, Najib Razak, and was passed just weeks before his long-ruling coalition surprisingly lost the May 2018 parliamentary elections.

Razak was quickly arrested on corruption charges and the winning coalition, led by Mahathir Mohamad – then the world’s oldest head of government – quickly sought to repeal the fake news code.

Mohamad quit the premiership in late February, before one of his allies from that landmark 2018 win, Muhyiddin Yassin, was nominated prime minister after a week of intrigue.

Yassin’s new coalition is back-boned by Razak’s party and others defeated in the 2018 vote.

Abdullah, the Communications Minister, was Mohamad’s Foreign Minister – but was among a handful of lawmakers to defect with Yassin.

The intervening four months have seen Malaysia battle the novel coronavirus pandemic, with a lockdown imposed from mid-March until early May.

According to Defence Minister, Ismail Sabri Yaakov, there have been 266 police investigations into the spreading of pandemic-related fake news.

 

NAN