Malaysiakini removes paywall for 2 weeks in the lead up to GE14

Malaysiakini is removing its paywall for the next two weeks in conjunction with the 14th Malaysian general election (GE14) on 9 May.According to CEO Premesh Chandran, Malaysiakini expects more than 80% of voters with Internet access to surf the website on polling day. As such, the team "will be doing [its] best" to ensure readers get access to news, views and election results.Non-subscribers will be able to access all its news reports and opinion pieces by registering their e-mail addresses, while current subscribers will have 14 days added to their existing subscriptions. Its comment section, however, will remain restricted to subscribers.“We know voters will be relying on Malaysiakini as a source of independent news so we are more than happy to make Malaysiakini available, free-of-charge, to everybody during this intense period,” he said. The website is preparing for approximately 20 million viewers come election day.Editor-in-chief Steven Gan said traffic to Malaysiakini has "increased tremendously" after parliament was dissolved and the countdown to GE14 began. Gan added that its Bahasa Malaysia site witnessed an "unprecedented spike" in viewership, increasing threefold.Read also:TMI publication suspension: Could paywalls have saved the day?20th Century Fox banks on election fever in MY to promote Deadpool movieGrab gets users pumped up for the election with GE14 Voter’s KitONE’s #ForwardTogether campaign encourages youths to get more involved in votingBosch AA banks on election fever for new video featuring Kak Girl