He was responding to Amnesty International’s claim that freedom of expression had shrunk after more than a year of the unity government’s administration.

“We acknowledge Amnesty’s viewpoint, but there’s a difference between freedom of speech and slander,” Fahmi, who is also communications minister, said at a press conference after a Cabinet meeting.

In its 2023-2024 State of the World’s Human Rights report launched yesterday, Amnesty had said despite the government’s promises of reform, the nation had seen an increase in censorship, harassment and restrictions on peaceful assembly.

Meanwhile, Fahmi announced that the defence ministry had given its commitment to release an interim report on the crash involving two Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) helicopters within the next two weeks.

He said defence minister Khaled Nordin had also given his assurance that a full report on the tragedy would be published within a month.

Yesterday, a 21-second video, which went viral, showed a RMN helicopter crashing into the tail of another in mid-air, and both plunging to the ground after that.

Fragments of the helicopters were seen flying through the air, landing near an open field where naval members were assembled.

The helicopters were rehearsing for RMN’s 90th anniversary celebration when the tragedy occurred.

RMN later identified the two helicopter models as HOM (M503-3) and Fennec (M502-6).

Ten people were killed in the incident.