The Malaysian Court of Appeal has ruled Section 3 of the country’s Sedition Act invalid.

The Sedition Act has been used against broadcasters and bloggers over the years to punish them for anti-government satire, cartoons and commentary.

The section of the act, now ruled invalid, only required that a statement be proved to be seditious for the author to be punished. But the three appeals court judges found this to be in contravention of Article 10 the country’s Constitution, which guarantees freedom of speech.

Section 3 (3) of the Act states that for purposes of proving the commission of any offence under the Sedition Act, the intention of a person charged, was deemed irrelevant if in fact the act had or would, if done, the words, publication had a seditious tendency.

Content can still be deemed seditious, but now intent must be established, which will make it more difficult for publishers and broadcasters to be charged.

The ruling is likely to result in a number of cases being overturned.

The appeal came about because Mat Shuhaimi filed an application in September 2014 seeking the court to declare Section 3 and 4 of the Sedition Act invalid, as he claimed the provisions violated the fundamental liberty of freedom of speech guaranteed by Article 10(1)(a) of the Federal Constitution. He was facing a sedition charge for allegedly posting seditious material on his blog in December 2010.

Malaysia’s Attorney General intends to appeal the ruling.