Article 10 of The Constitution of Malaysia - Implementation

Implementation

Several acts of law regulate the freedoms granted by Article 10, such as the Official Secrets Act, which makes it a crime to disseminate information classified as an official secret. The Sedition Act 1948 makes it an offence to engage in acts with a "seditious tendency", including but not limited to the spoken word and publications; conviction may result in a sentence of a fine up to RM5,000, three years in jail, or both. The Public Order (Preservation) Ordinance 1958 allows the Police to declare certain areas "restricted", and to regulate processions or meetings of five persons or more. The maximum sentence for the violation of a restricted area order is imprisonment of 10 years and whipping.

Other laws curtailing the freedoms of Article 10 are the Police Act 1967, which criminalises the gathering of three or more people in a public place without a licence, and the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984, which grants the Home Affairs Minister "absolute discretion" in the granting and revoking of publishing permits, and also makes it a criminal offense to possess a printing press without a licence.

The Sedition Act in particular has been widely commented upon by jurists for the bounds it places on freedom of speech. Justice Raja Azlan Shah (later the Yang di-Pertuan Agong) once said:

In 2009, the government announced it was considering amendment of several laws which impinge upon freedom of speech, including the controversial Internal Security Act (ISA), which has been used to detain numerous politicians and activists without trial. Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein, accompanied by Inspector-General of Police Musa Hassan, Attorney General Abdul Gani Patail, Information, Communication, and Culture Minister Rais Yatim, and Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Nazri Aziz, told the press that the ISA, Police Act, Multimedia and Communications Act, the Restrictive Residence Ordinance, and the Emergency Ordinance would be reviewed with an eye to relaxing restrictions on freedom of speech. Rais also said that the Police Act would include provisions allowing peaceful assembly in certain designated places such as stadiums, without the need to obtain a permit from the police. The government plans to table amendments to these laws during the October sitting of Parliament, and pass them by December.