Juno News - Malaysian state censor honoured at London media freedom conference

The first ever Global Conference for Media Freedom in London, co-hosted by the governments of Canada and the UK, aimed at exporting the idea of a free press to countries around the world. It's an important topic, one about which I care a great deal, but one that I'm not particularly optimistic the host governments care much about. They care about talking about it, but their actions don't match the words. One example of this is apparent in who they've invited to participate in the conference: a number of representatives of fundamentally unfree countries are here. The Pakistani Foreign Minister, for example, is a special guest in the proceedings of this conference, but there was one speaker in particular that piqued my interest. He was honored on stage at the beginning of the second day of the conference by British Foreign Minister Jeremy Hunt. He is the Malaysian Minister for Communications and Multimedia.

00:00:00.000 I'm at the first ever Global Conference for Media Freedom in London, England,

00:00:13.440 co-hosted by the governments of Canada and the United Kingdom, aimed at essentially exporting

00:00:18.880 the idea of a free press to countries around the world. An important topic, one about which I care

00:00:24.640 a great deal, but one that I'm not particularly optimistic the host governments care all that

00:00:29.680 much about themselves. They care about talking about it, but their actions don't match the words.

00:00:36.240 One example of this is apparent in who they've invited to participate. A number of representatives

00:00:42.480 of fundamentally unfree countries are here. The Pakistani foreign minister, for example,

00:00:48.480 is a special guest in the proceedings of this conference. But there was one speaker in particular

00:00:53.920 that piqued my interest. He was honored on stage at the beginning of the second day of the conference

00:00:58.640 by British Foreign Minister Jeremy Hunt. He is the Malaysian Minister for Communications

00:01:04.320 and Multimedia. There he is there. Now Minister Singh Deo spoke very effectively about how he cares about

00:01:11.360 a free press and free speech and he wants to combat fake news. That's his words, not mine. But when you

00:01:17.440 look into this particular minister, his track record is the exact opposite of standing up for free speech.

00:01:24.400 For example, last September, there was a British publisher, a London-based publisher of the popular

00:01:31.760 website Malaysia Today, that made a comment about a police chief in Malaysia, a Sikh man who wears a

00:01:38.160 turban. And he said the comment may have been in poor taste, that the turban may have been on too

00:01:44.240 tight. It was restricting blood flow. Now this may not be a comment you agree with or stand by, but it's the

00:01:50.240 type of comment that free speech allows even if it's disagreeable or offensive. Well, what this

00:01:56.080 particular minister did in response was say not only that it's unacceptable and shouldn't have a place

00:02:01.120 in society, but that speech like that should be prosecuted even when the person who utters it

00:02:08.000 doesn't live in Malaysia. This is what he said in a Facebook post. Minister Singh Deo argued for an

00:02:14.720 extraterritorial law that would allow prosecution worldwide against those who run afoul of Malaysia's 0.76

00:02:22.320 very strict and stringent speech reforms. In a later example, he spoke about wanting a law that would

00:02:28.800 regulate social media companies and even regulate the comments on news outlets, holding media companies

00:02:36.160 accountable if someone writes what he called an inflammatory comment on a news story that's publicly

00:02:41.600 accessible, prosecuting news websites for allowing users to comment on them. Now these may be things

00:02:48.080 that you would expect to hear from the Minister of Communications and Multimedia from Malaysia. In fact,

00:02:53.520 I wouldn't be all that surprised about it, which is why I looked into this man in the first place.

00:02:57.680 What is surprising, and I would say the paragon of hypocrisy, is that this man was not only invited to a press

00:03:03.600 freedom conference, but given billing on stage alongside the foreign ministers of Canada and the United

00:03:10.000 Kingdom, introduced as someone who was on the front lines of the free speech battles in his country.

00:03:16.000 That's what happened with this particular minister. Now I asked Minister Freeland about this in a press

00:03:22.320 scrum, and her response was that this isn't about perfection. You can look at her answer for yourself.

00:03:28.480 This is not meant to be a group of angels and a group of countries that are perfect.

00:03:34.800 What it is meant to be is a group of countries that are, and not just the attendance, the attendance is

00:03:42.400 open, and I'm actually quite happy to have people who don't believe in media freedom be here to listen

00:03:50.160 to us and have an opportunity to hear why we think it's important. But in terms of the group of countries,

00:03:56.480 for example, signing on to our media pledge, the group of countries on a stage, it's not meant to be a

00:04:02.080 gathering of angels, what it is meant to be, or of saints, it's meant to be a gathering of countries

00:04:08.720 that sincerely appreciate the importance of media freedom, and crucially, sincerely believe in the

00:04:18.400 value of working hard to get better. And I think in introducing the Malaysian minister, Secretary Hunt

00:04:25.280 was very clear that that was the reason that the invitation had been extended to Malaysia.

00:04:30.480 Now, I happen to agree with Minister Freeland's assertion that this isn't about perfection, that

00:04:35.120 no country has a 100% successful track record at upholding free speech. But there is something to

00:04:41.600 be said about the judgment of the countries that are telling us we need to take their lead when the

00:04:47.200 people they're inviting aren't doing the same. And it's proof of what I've said all through this

00:04:52.480 process, which is that Canada and the UK aren't interested in actually getting into the uncomfortable truths

00:04:57.520 about free speech in their own countries and those of other countries here. They're more interested in

00:05:02.320 talking a big game. And they've already, without having known how this conference would shape up,

00:05:07.520 committed to having another one next year. And it's hard to imagine things will be any clearer then.

00:05:14.960 We've heard from advocates and activists and NGOs that have been complaining about declining press

00:05:19.840 freedom around the world, even in developed countries like Canada and the UK.

00:05:23.680 You can be 8th on the list for global press freedom, you can be 18th as Canada is or 33 as Britain is.

00:05:29.920 But these are relative rankings. This doesn't mean that you are doing things right in your own country

00:05:34.880 and you are protecting the free press and free speech rights of your country.

00:05:39.600 But now they're wanting us to learn from Malaysia, from not just a government,

00:05:44.640 but an individual government figure and politician who thinks that you should be able to prosecute

00:05:49.840 internationally anyone who makes a mean comment online. And this is what we've learned at the

00:05:55.760 Global Conference for Media Freedom. For True North from London, I'm Andrew Lawton.

Juno News - July 13, 2019

Malaysian state censor honoured at London media freedom conference

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