KUALA LUMPUR: The prohibition against touching on 3R (race, religion and royalty) issues silences the people, said Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
The former prime minister said freedom of speech was only for those who supported the government.
"At this time, especially during elections, statements that are historically true are considered by print media as incitement.
"When PMX (Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim) was not part of government, he would shout cries of reform," he said in a statement today.
Dr Mahathir added that among the reforms demanded included freedom of speech and print media freedom.
"Now freedom of speech is limited to (those) supporting government."
It was reported that Malaysian news portal UtusanTV had been blocked by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission.
UtusanTV.com was established by former staff of Utusan Malaysia after its parent company Utusan Melayu (Malaysia) Berhad shut down in 2019 due to financial problems.
However, UtusanTV.com has no links to Utusan Malaysia, which had since been relaunched in 2020 by Media Mulia Sdn Bhd.