United Nations — When a Malaysian politician of a bygone era was asked about the "leading newspapers" in his country, he shot back: "We don't have any leading newspapers in our country because all our newspapers are misleading."
But that comment, perhaps uttered half-jokingly about two decades ago, underwent a reality check recently when the Malaysian government passed legislation to impose prison sentences up to six years in jail if journalists are found guilty of spreading "fake news".
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