Cyber Defamation: A Comparative Analysis of the Legal Position in Malaysia and the United Kingdom

The phenomenal explosion of the information and communication technology (ICT) has brought great changes to our daily lives. And with the advent of numerous kinds of Internet communications such as electronic mails (e-mails), chat groups, online fora, web logs (blogs), social media platforms and many others, Internet users are able to easily publish and disseminate any kind of information to the public at large. Unfortunately, the ease of use of these online media has on several occasions been misused by unscrupulous individuals for publishing defamatory remarks in the cyber world. At present, reported cases of cyber defamation have been on the rise in Malaysia. In relation thereof, the paper embarks on a doctrinal study to examine the efficacy of the existing regulatory regime that governs such a crime. In so doing, the study will analyse the provisions of the Malaysian Defamation Act 1957 (the primary source of law for defamation) and relevant reported cases that have been decided by the Malaysian judiciary. Apart from that, a comparative analysis with the position in the United Kingdom after the enactment of the English Defamation Act 2013 will be made since the Malaysian statute was drafted far back in the 1950s and since then no significant amendment was made to reflect the advancement of the Information Age. Finally, this paper will attempt to highlight any loopholes or lacunae in the existing laws and possible suggestions and recommendation as part of its conclusion.