Information Ministry to push ‘fake news’ education over draft law

The Information Ministry has decided not to prepare a draft law on fake news and disinformation despite requests from within the government, and instead will focus on educating journalists on how to strengthen the public’s access to reliable information, according to minister Khieu Kanharith.

While presiding over the launch of the Khmer Version of a Unesco handbook titled “Journalism, ‘Fake News’ and Disinformation: A Handbook for Journalism Education and Training” on July 23, Kanharith said the ministry has taken into consideration the interests of all parties, and the importance of human rights. He said that at the start of the global Covid-19 outbreak, many government officials had called for the creation of a law to regulate fake news, but that it had been deemed unnecessary since Covid-19 is a temporary problem.

“If we created the law, we would find it difficult to set limits because this law would not protect joint interests, it would protect only individual interests and it would become an abuse of freedom of expression,” Kanharith said at the launching event.

In full: https://cambojanews.com/information-ministry-to-push-fake-news-education-over-draft-law/

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