Threatening journalists with the new law, with its expedited special tribunals and expanded punishments now serve as an easy way to silence critical stories. If the law was so essential to the fabric of the federation, it would have survived parliamentary debate as well. What are the deficiencies of the existing defamation law? This is what the last government was accused of; despite promising no political victimization, it carried out victimization, and despite promising compromise, it too tried to push legislation through. This is a bad look for a government that wanted to reset the political dynamic and usher in a new era of democratic dialogue.

Source: The Nation May 22, 2024 07:33 UTC