SINGAPORE (The Straits Times/ANN): The authorities in the island have issued orders to block access to Malaysian news portal MalaysiaNow after it refused to put up correction notices for a Nov 9 article about the treatment of an executed drug courier.
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and Ministry of Digital Development and Information said in a joint statement on Nov 17 that they are aware of the Malaysian outlet’s statement, in which it rejected the correction direction and criticised the Government’s approach to clarifying online falsehoods.
The correction direction had required MalaysiaNow to display the correction notices alongside its published material.
In doing so, readers in Singapore would be able to make their own assessment after reading both versions, said the two ministries.
However, MalaysiaNow has not complied despite reminders being sent, the statement said.
“These are not actions that would be taken by any responsible media outlet with journalistic integrity,” it added.
As a result, the Minister for Digital Development and Information has directed the Infocomm Media Development Authority to issue access blocking orders requiring internet service providers to disable access to the Malaysian site for those in Singapore.
The statement said that Minister for Law and Second Minister for Home Affairs Edwin Tong also gave a separate instruction to the Pofma Office, which administers the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act, to issue targeted correction directions to Meta, LinkedIn and X.
Such directions are issued to platforms that were used to communicate a falsehood, and require them to put up correction notices for all users in Singapore accessing their services.
Tong’s instruction comes after MalaysiaNow’s failure to comply with the correction order for its Facebook, LinkedIn and X posts linking to the same article.
On Nov 15, MHA said the Pofma Office was instructed by Mr Tong to issue the correction direction over MalaysiaNow’s article about Pannir Selvam Pranthaman.
It said it identified five broad falsehoods in the article, including one that said Pannir’s execution was done without regard for the rule of law. The ministry rebutted this by detailing the legal process that took place from conviction to the application for clemency.
MalaysiaNow, meanwhile, said in a statement on its Facebook page that day that it acknowledged the Pofma correction order but would not abide by it.
“It is baffling, even amusing, to think that the Singapore government could... expect the media in Malaysia to follow them.
“We do not take instructions from our own government; what makes them think we would take instructions from them?” said the statement, which was signed off by its editor Abdar Rahman Koya. - The Straits Times/Asia News Network
