Prejudicial to Public Order: Legal Issues on Banning Book in Malaysia

Abstract

In some jurisdictions, a government is allowed to ban any book that is seen as not suitable or improper for the country. Banning books is said to occur if individuals, public officials, or organisations remove books from libraries, school reading lists, or bookstore shelves because they disagree with their content, ideas, or themes. In this context, those who support a ban generally claim that the book in question contains graphic violence, attacks parents and family, is sexually explicit, exalts evil, is unworthy of literary merit, is inappropriate for a certain age range, or uses offensive language. As a result, this article aims to explore the legal implications of banning books in Malaysia. This article uses a qualitative research approach by analysing both primary and secondary data. This article found that under the Printing Presses and Publications Act of 1984, the Malaysian government has prohibited the publication of various books. Section 7 (1) of the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984 is invoked to ban an undesirable publication in Malaysia. Under these provisions, a book could only be prohibited by order of the minister published in a gazette when the book is “prejudicial to public order.” However, this article found that the term “prejudicial to public order” is debatable as it can be interpreted differently. Therefore, this article suggests that the term “prejudicial to public order” under Section 7 (1) of the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984 must be defined in the statute to prevent misinterpretation of the law.