Welsh government considers new crime of deliberate deception by an elected official.
Who isn't fed up with politicians - including presidents and prime ministers - lying and deliberately spreading falsehoods? So, it's heartening to hear that one nation is examining whether this can be stopped. The Welsh government (known as the Senedd) is considering a law to bar politicians from office if they lie.
If passed, the world-first law would mean anyone "found guilty of deliberate lying" would be disqualified from being a member of, or standing for, the Senedd. But the law "would not apply to matters of belief, opinion, or simple misunderstanding", said The i Paper.
In these times when trust in politicians has "fallen to an all-time low", this legislation would "restore and rebuild and maintain that trust in democracy", said Adam Price of Welsh political party Plaid Cymru, when he proposed the law last year.
Transparency International UK is worried that to write a law that provides "for different interpretations, based on political affiliation, seems nigh on impossible". Others are concerned that the consequent struggle to secure a conviction could also, ironically, make collapsing public trust even worse, "How many failed prosecutions of lying MPs would it take before distrust deepened?"
But "if lying can be prohibited in a whole range of other professions", said Jennifer Nadel in Byline Times, "why is it not possible to prohibit it in politics? Of course it is."
In the end, politicians lie "because they believe they'll score more points than they'll lose", said Bill Adair in The Atlantic. To change that, there needs to be a broader societal change, buoyed by fact-checkers and tech platforms and people "caring about lies, even when their candidate is the culprit".