On 13 July 2026, the Malaysian Parliament had the first tabling of the long-awaited Freedom of Information (FOI) Bill 2026. However, the version of the bill that was tabled completely missed the mark as it instead focused on administrative procedures for requesting information already obtainable through internal operating procedures. Major civil society and legal experts—including ARTICLE 19, the Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ), and the Malaysian Bar—have criticised the bill as regressive, procedure-heavy, and misdirected.
Key concerns include the protection of the existing Official Secrets Act (OSA) 1972, restrictive applicant requirements, criminalisation of secondary information use, absence of a mandatory ‘Harm Test’ as well as constitutional exclusion. The proposed bill will significantly weaken Malaysia’s civic environment by institutionalising bureaucratic gatekeeping instead of promoting an open and responsive state. However, the government has handed the draft over to the Parliamentary Special Select Committee (PSSC) which buys time for civil societies to submit feedback and lobby lawmakers to fix the bill’s flawed sections.