civil society pressure for Commonwealth countries including Malaysia and India to repeal their sedition laws. In July 2012, Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak announced plans to repeal the Sedition Act 1948. However, at the 2014 general assembly of his political party, the United Malays National Organisation, he announced a reversal of this policy. At an event in March 2015 he said, "We should not be apologetic. Some may say this is not democratic, this [violates] rights to freedom, and more, but I want to say that there is no absolute freedom. There is no place for absolute freedom without responsibility in this country." On 10 April 2015, following a 12-hour parliamentary debate, the Sedition (Amendment) Act 2015 was enacted. Changes to the law included clarifying that calling for secession and promoting feelings of ill-will, hostility and hatred between people or groups of people on religious grounds amount to sedition; empowering the Public Prosecutor to call for bail to be denied to persons charged with sedition and for them to be prevented from leaving the country; introducing a minimum jail term of three years and extending the maximum term to 20 years; and enabling the courts to order that seditious material on the Internet be taken down or blocked. On the other hand, criticizing the government is no longer an offence. The Malaysian Act was amended while a decision by the Federal Court on whether the Act violated the right to freedom of speech guaranteed by Article 10 of the Constitution of Malaysia was pending. The case was brought by Dr. Azmi Sharom, a law professor from the University of Malaya who had been charged with sedition for comments he made on the 2009 Perak constitutional crisis which were published on the website of The Malay Mail on 14 August 2014. On 6 October, the Federal Court ruled that the provision of the Sedition Act challenged was not unconstitutional. Azmi will therefore stand trial on the original charge. See also Article 14 of the Constitution of Singapore Censorship in Singapore Criminal law of Singapore Sedition Sedition Act (Malaysia) Notes References Cases R. v. Chief Metropolitan Stipendiary Magistrate, ex parte Choudhury [1991] 1 Q.B. 429, High Court (Queen's Bench) (England and Wales). Public Prosecutor v. Koh Song Huat Benjamin [2005] SGDC 272, District Court (Singapore). Public Prosecutor v. Ong Kian Cheong [2009] SGDC 163, D.C. (Singapore). Legislation , Article 14. ("MRHA"). Sedition