It said the government should rely on its “well-equipped communications facilities” to counter incorrect or untrue information, instead of taking legal action.

“Fake news on matters of public importance should be addressed and answered, but it is wrong to slap the public with criminal charges for that reason.

“That would be a slippery slope into authoritarianism, where any discourse on matters of public interest must be in the narrative factually approved by the government of the day,” LFL director Zaid Malek said in a statement.

Zaid added that irrespective of the alleged falsity of the statement, which he said revolved around former prime minister Najib Razak and the royal addendum, public discussion of the topic was a matter of national interest.

He said the government should not charge or jail anyone who participates in such discussions.

Johari Ismail, 67, was fined in default of six months in jail after pleading guilty to a charge of knowingly using Facebook to initiate the transmission of offensive communication with the intention of annoying others.

Zaid said if members of the public were going to have their online comments “constantly examined by police with a fine-tooth comb for inaccuracies”, no one would dare say anything.

“Anyone can make an honest mistake. Are they to be jailed for this? It would be the death of freedom of speech,” he added.

Zaid also urged the government to honour its promise to repeal Section 233(1)(a) of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998, which he said had been used as a “backdoor anti-fake news law”.

“Any response to ‘fake’ news should not come at the expense of the right to freedom of speech,” he said.

The royal addendum provides for Najib to serve the remainder of his sentence, following his graft conviction, under house arrest.