Lawyers criticise proposed amendments as a serious attack of freedom of speech.

PETALING JAYA: Constitutional and civil liberty lawyers have criticised the proposed amendments to the Sedition Act, 1948 as a serious attack on freedom of speech, the Malay Mail reports.

Although the amendments recently tabled in Parliament via the Sedition (Amendments) Bill 2015 contain positive aspects by seeking to decriminalise criticism of government and the administration of justice, several other provisions make unacceptable inroads into the freedom of speech and the liberty of citizens, lawyers say.

The Bill makes for a chilling read, constitutional lawyer Syahredzan Johan was quoted as saying, and amounts to the most serious attack on freedom of speech Malaysia has ever seen.

Lawyers took issue with several provisions contained in the Act.

Chief among them was the creation of a new offence.

The proposed new section 4(1A) of the Act makes it an offence for anyone to utter seditious words which cause bodily injury or damage to property and imposes a minimum term of imprisonment of five years and a maximum of twenty years as punishment.

The loose wording of the provision has raised suspicion as to its actual intent, a senior lawyer told FMT today.

To me it appears ultimately to be targeting statements made at political rallies and other assemblies, and runs counter to the Peaceful Assembly Act, 2012, which the Prime Minister himself initiated, he said.

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Sedition is not murder