After decades of slavishly backing the only government Malaysia had ever known, state-linked media are scrambling to find their feet after the election landslide, seeking to shed a reputation as official mouthpieces but facing a challenge from plucky independent websites. After almost 60 years of political independence in peninsular Malaysia, and nearly 54 years after the formation of Malaysia, the country has instead regressed so much in terms of press freedom and freedom of expression, writes Mustafa K Anuar for Aliran. In 2016, the U.S. State Department criticised restrictions on access to domestic and international reporting on Malaysia as the country reels from the 1MDB scandal that implicated then-prime minister Najib Razak.