Censorship and the Law: Balancing Public Interest and Free Speech

A free media is a bedrock of democracy as espoused by the Prime Minister Dato' Sri Mohd Najib since without a free media reporting uncomfortable truths about the government how could the populace participate in governance. However, absolute freedom has no place in any country since absolute fre...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Shuaib, Farid Sufian
Format: Proceeding Paper
Language:English
English
Published: 2012
Subjects:
Online Access:http://irep.iium.edu.my/28048/
http://irep.iium.edu.my/28048/2/Program_Schedule_C-MAS2012_2nd.pdf
http://irep.iium.edu.my/28048/1/Censorship_and_the_Law.pptx
_version_ 1848779911149387776
author Shuaib, Farid Sufian
author_facet Shuaib, Farid Sufian
author_sort Shuaib, Farid Sufian
building IIUM Repository
collection Online Access
description A free media is a bedrock of democracy as espoused by the Prime Minister Dato' Sri Mohd Najib since without a free media reporting uncomfortable truths about the government how could the populace participate in governance. However, absolute freedom has no place in any country since absolute freedom will lead to anarchy. The task then is to strike a balance between a free media and competing individual and societal interests. The objective of this paper is to look at constitutional guarantee of free media and restrictions imposed upon the media and provide a legal analysis on the guarantee of free media, the restrictive laws and the application of the laws. The recent development on media laws where the government had loosen restrictive laws such as the scrapping off the annual newspaper licence is considered together with the need for further liberalisation of media laws to produce media that is vibrant, transparent and fair.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T15:25:17Z
format Proceeding Paper
id iium-28048
institution International Islamic University Malaysia
institution_category Local University
language English
English
last_indexed 2025-11-14T15:25:17Z
publishDate 2012
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling iium-280482013-02-13T20:25:45Z http://irep.iium.edu.my/28048/ Censorship and the Law: Balancing Public Interest and Free Speech Shuaib, Farid Sufian H61.8 Communication of information H96 Public policy (General), Policy sciences K Law (General) A free media is a bedrock of democracy as espoused by the Prime Minister Dato' Sri Mohd Najib since without a free media reporting uncomfortable truths about the government how could the populace participate in governance. However, absolute freedom has no place in any country since absolute freedom will lead to anarchy. The task then is to strike a balance between a free media and competing individual and societal interests. The objective of this paper is to look at constitutional guarantee of free media and restrictions imposed upon the media and provide a legal analysis on the guarantee of free media, the restrictive laws and the application of the laws. The recent development on media laws where the government had loosen restrictive laws such as the scrapping off the annual newspaper licence is considered together with the need for further liberalisation of media laws to produce media that is vibrant, transparent and fair. 2012 Proceeding Paper PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://irep.iium.edu.my/28048/2/Program_Schedule_C-MAS2012_2nd.pdf application/pdf en http://irep.iium.edu.my/28048/1/Censorship_and_the_Law.pptx Shuaib, Farid Sufian (2012) Censorship and the Law: Balancing Public Interest and Free Speech. In: Conference on Media and Society, Media, Censorship and Society: Crossroads between Global and Local Realities, 24-26 September 2012, Kuching, Sarawak. (Unpublished)
spellingShingle H61.8 Communication of information
H96 Public policy (General), Policy sciences
K Law (General)
Shuaib, Farid Sufian
Censorship and the Law: Balancing Public Interest and Free Speech
title Censorship and the Law: Balancing Public Interest and Free Speech
title_full Censorship and the Law: Balancing Public Interest and Free Speech
title_fullStr Censorship and the Law: Balancing Public Interest and Free Speech
title_full_unstemmed Censorship and the Law: Balancing Public Interest and Free Speech
title_short Censorship and the Law: Balancing Public Interest and Free Speech
title_sort censorship and the law: balancing public interest and free speech
topic H61.8 Communication of information
H96 Public policy (General), Policy sciences
K Law (General)
url http://irep.iium.edu.my/28048/
http://irep.iium.edu.my/28048/2/Program_Schedule_C-MAS2012_2nd.pdf
http://irep.iium.edu.my/28048/1/Censorship_and_the_Law.pptx