Malaysia’s opposition-led Senate blocked an effort to repeal a law against “fake news” on Wednesday, presenting the first major challenge for the new government of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, Channel News Asia reports. Barisan Nasional senator Khairul Azwan Harun said that the opposition bench blocked Putrajaya’s bid to repeal the Anti-Fake News Act 2018 because they believed that the law should be improved rather than abolished, Free Malaysia Today reports. The law was introduced in March by the previous prime minister Najib Razak just weeks before Malaysia’s 14th general election, and was widely condemned at the time as an assault on free speech and a tool to muzzle critics from discussing scandals such as 1MDB, according to The Guardian.