Online publishing in Malaysia

In January 2007, Malaysia's Prime Minister, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had officially restated the 'no censorship on the internet' policy (announced in August 2006) that bloggers who publish seditious, malicious, or defamatory content will be reported to the federal police. Malaysian bloggers are now bounded by laws on defamation, sedition, and other limits on speech.

Quoting Badawi (2007):-

“The law is the law. They cannot hide and hope to be protected under some kind of a cover or whatever they think that they have,” the Prime Minister said. Abdullah said it was obvious that for bloggers and for journalists of other media, duty and responsibility must go together.

“And if you want freedom, what is freedom without responsibility?” he asked. “I don’t agree with freedom without responsibility. Freedom without responsibility is anarchy. Actually, it is being irresponsible,” he added.

(taken from theunspunblog.com)

Even though the Malaysia’s constitution guarantees the right of free speech and expression for every citizen, significant limitation has been set in the interest of the security of the Federation. Both The Communications and Multimedia Act of 1998 (“CMA”) and the Communications and Multimedia Commission Act of 1998 (“CMCA”) was set up to directly govern Malaysia’s telecommunications, broadcasting, and internet sectors, including related facilities, services, and content (OpenNet.net 2007). The CMCA is empowered to regulate the information technology and communications industries while the CMA empowers the commission with broad authority to regulate online speech (OpenNet.net 2007). The act also states any Malaysian publishers that violates this term may face criminal penalties plus a fine up to RM50,000 and/or serve one year in prison.

One of the effect of this act had involved Raja Petra, editor of Malaysia Today news portal, for publishing a seditious article on the website (TheStar.com 2008).

This clearly shows that the government takes this offense seriously no matter what status you have in the community. I advise Malaysian bloggers to be EXTREMELY cautious when making any online post. One wrong word and you may end up the next 'blog-arrest' case.



References
Megaswari, M & Kaur, M 2008, Blogger Raja Petra taken to prison after declining bail on sedition charge, online, retrieved 12 Jun 2008, from http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/5/7/nation/21167472&sec=nation

OpenNet Initiative, Legal and regulatory frameworks, online, retrived 12 Jun 2008, from http://opennet.net/research/profiles/malaysia

Unspun 2008, Badawi on bloggers and responsibility, online, retrieved 12 Jun 2008, from http://theunspunblog.com/2007/01/24/badawi-on-bloggers-and-responsibility/