Page 5 - Harmonisation of Anti-Fake News Legislation in ASEAN Flip Book

Chapter 3
Fake News Legislation Introduction
AS WAS SEEN IN Chapter 2 fake news is quite pervasive throughout ASEAN and is of increasing concern to both the member states as well as ASEAN as an organisation. Before any attempt can be undertaken to harmonise laws it is necessary to analyse the anti-fake news legislation in the three sample jurisdic- tions and to understand its application in practice.
It must be borne in mind at the outset that there are compli- cations when translating laws from one language to another as language constructs are tied to culture and common under- standing. This means that the translation may be imperfect.1 This commentary is based on the English versions of legislation with the source of the translation provided in the relevant citation in the footnote.2
A complication in the case of Thailand is that “[Court] deci- sions are often brief and there is no guarantee they will be publicly
1 Robert Brian Smith, ‘Harmonisation of Laws in ASEAN: The Issue of English’ International Seminar on Politics, Administration and Development 2019 (INSPAD2019) (2019) 273. <https://www. researchgate.net/publication/343178725_CODE_026_HARMONISATION_OF_LAWS_IN_ASEAN_THE_ ISSUE_OF_LANGUAGE>.
2 If there is any inconsistency between the wording in the original legislation and that of the translation that of the original translation takes precedence.
41