According to a report by Civicus, the top violations to political and civic freedoms in the country and the Asia region includes the use of restrictive laws to criminalise human rights defenders and opponents, censorship, the harassment of activists and critics, and a crackdown on protests.
Civicus has documented several incidents that showed civic freedom, including the freedom of expression, has been violated in the country.
It said that following the change of government in early March, activists including students have faced judicial harassment from police.
Restrictive laws such as the Communications and Multimedia Act have been used to prosecute online criticism of religion and the monarchy while parody accounts have been probed, it said in a statement.
“‘The authorities in Malaysia have also harassed journalists for their critical reporting, as well as filed criminal contempt proceedings against Malaysiakini.com.
“Foreign journalists from Al Jazeera and a whistleblower, Mohammad Rayhan Kabir, were forced to leave the country following a documentary on the abuses of undocumented migrants during the pandemic while press freedom has also deteriorated.
“Individuals calling for or holding peaceful protests have also been questioned or
arrested, such as the five protesters demanding protection for hospital cleaners in Ipoh.”
Further, there has been a lack of progress by the government taskforce into investigating the disappearance of activist Amri Che Mat and Pastor Raymond Koh.
Malaysia has been rated as “obstructed” since the last global report.
However, there has been a further decline in the Philippines, which has been downgraded from “obstructed” to “repressed”.
“Contributing to this downgrade are ongoing attacks on media freedom; ABS-CBN, the largest media network, was forced off-air, depriving people of critical information during the Covid-19 pandemic, while Rappler journalist Maria Ressa was found guilty.”
The report also showed that out of 25 countries in Asia, four – China, Vietnam, Laos and North Korea – are rated “closed”, nine “repressed” and nine “obstructed”. Civic space in South Korea and Japan is rated as “narrowed”, while Taiwan is the only country rated “open”.