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Malaysia's surprising fourteenth general election result in May 2018 was widely hailed as the advent of a seismic shift for press freedom in the country. The country's draconian media control armoury was often wantonly and oppressively applied over six decades under previous rule. Key actors from that era are now presiding over bold reforms that have been promised by the new government. In keeping with its election promises, the new government sought to repeal the hastily and badly drafted Anti-Fake News Act 2018 (AFNA). The Attorney-General Tommy Thomas wrote scathingly before the Act was passed and before taking office as the new A-G: The draconian effect of the entire bill renders it unconstitutional... This is a disgraceful piece of legislation drafted by a desperate government determined to crush dissent and silence critics. The bill is so hastily and poorly drafted that it cannot under any circumstances be improved by amendment. Instead, it must be rejected outright. (Thomas, 2018) The repeal effort, however, failed and the Act remains technically on the books. This article examines the Act against a backdrop of global responses to the 'fake news' phenomenon; provides an overview of Malaysia's draconian armoury of laws that impinge on freedom of expression; discusses the fading optimism for proper media regulation reform in Malaysia; and concludes that meaningful media regulation reform must go beyond repealing AFNA. Keywords: Anti-Fake News Act, censorship, fake news, free speech, freedom of expression, law reform, Malaysia, media law, media regulation., Introduction ACOALITION of somewhat unlikely partners teamed up to topple the ruling government and with it the new government became bound by lofty election promises, including those concerning the restoration [...]

I. INTRODUCTION II. WHY LEVEL THE PLAYING FIELD? THE ARGUMENT FOR REFORM III. CAMPAIGNS, CASH, AND THE POWER OF REPETITION A. Does Campaign Spending Matter? B. How Does Campaign Spending [...], The industrialization of the channels and scale of communication has led some well-meaning reformers to try to regulate the ability of powerful private actors to leverage economic inequality into political inequality, particularly in the area of campaign finance. Such reform efforts are ostensibly intended to further the deliberative democratic ideal of rational, informed public decisionmaking by preventing well-funded private interests from improperly influencing democratic debate and, by extension, political outcomes. This Article examines empirical findings in political science, psychology, and marketing and argues that, in the context of contemporary American society, the normative principles of deliberative democracy and formal equality operate at cross-purposes. Equalizing measures in campaign finance regulation are extremely likely to increase the divergence between actual political decisionmaking and a deliberative, informed, rational ideal by increasing the incentives for speakers to mislead and manipulate voters or by entrenching preexisting majorities. This Article argues that, rather than focusing on equality of financing, reformers would do better to think about how to ameliorate the source of non-optimal political decisionmaking: the (economically rational) political ignorance, non-rational decisionmaking, and civic disengagement of the average citizen.

White House policy will require universities to certify that they protect free speech to remain eligible for research funding. White House policy will require universities to certify that they protect free speech to remain eligible for research funding., Author(s): Sara Reardon Author Affiliations: Universities spooked by Trump order tying free speech to grants Trump announced his plans for the executive order in early March. [see PDF for image] [...]

The latest science news, in brief. The latest science news, in brief., Author Affiliations: Planet Nine, Russian education law and COVID variants The hypothetical ninth planet (illustration). Credit: Shutterstock A blue planet seen in front of the Milky Way. No sign of [...]