Anxiety over ‘censorship’ mounts as Malaysian government faces state poll test

Advocates have warned of creeping ‘censorship’ by the government after an opposition-linked news site suffered an unexplained outage

The outage comes before state polls, which are seen as a barometer of support for a government that is accused of closing the door on criticism

Reading Time:4 minutes

The opposition has leapt on the MalaysiaNow outage, accusing the government of using enforcement agencies “to silence those who expose their incompetence”. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 4:00pm, 1 Jul 2023

Media freedom advocates in Malaysia have warned of creeping government “censorship” after an opposition-linked news portal suffered an unexplained outage following a report that a minister threatened police action against critics who derided him during a TikTok live event.

The incidents come just weeks before Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s unity government faces its first real test in a clutch of state polls.

Anwar’s government came to power in November promising to sweep away an ulcerous period of corruption and suppressed media freedoms.

Yet just days into his premiership, the government declared an all-out effort to take down provocative posts dealing with the 3Rs – race, religion and royalty – after a divisive November election.

In the run-up to state polls, which are seen as a barometer of support for the government – especially from among the majority Malays, who make up some two-thirds of voters – Anwar’s administration has been accused of closing down room for criticism.

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