Malaysia Net censorship?
p2pnet.net News:- Malaysia’s mainstream media have long engaged in “self-censorship,” and now the powers that be are trying to get online publishers to do the same.
“Newspapers are licensed and must follow strict publishing laws,” says Reuters, “But Web sites and blogs have mushroomed in the last decade, exploiting a government promise not to censor the Internet.”
Abdullah, Malaysia’s prime minister, “seems to be taking on the same authoritarian tendencies of Mahathir, stopping freedom of the press, controlling the Internet and stopping public discussion of important issues," opposition politician Sivarasa Rasiah is quoted as saying.
Abdullah has allowed “freer discussion of race and religion since taking power from Mahathir in 2003,” but rumours spread through the Internet and by text messaging have often targeted him and his family and he hasn’t hesitated to, “act firmly against a media organisation when he felt it had overstepped the mark,” says Reuters, going on:
“He indefinitely suspended the printing licence of the 61-year-old Sarawak Tribune newspaper after it printed the cartoons at the heart of the Prophet Mohammad controversy, a move that led to the paper’s closure.
“But the current Internet crackdown has been prompted by a desire to rein in Mahathir, Malaysia’s longest-serving prime minister, who still commands considerable support in UMNO.”
Meanwhile, the government is monitoring some sites and, “Bloggers who post seditious, malicious or defamatory articles will be reported to police, communications minister Lim Keng Yaik said this week,” states Reuters, adding:
“The police report will be a form of control by the government to ensure bloggers do not break the law," the Star newspaper quoted Lim as saying. In July, Lim himself was the victim of a flurry of text-message rumours that he had died.”
Also See:
Reuters – Malaysian leaders carry quarrel into cyberspace, August 11, 2006
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August 15th, 2006 at 2:42 pm
It seems that Malaysia is following in the footsteps of China in its attempts to censor the web and this is a really scary thing. I think its appalling that censorship still exists in our modern world and I think people the world over should do everything they can to protest and combat it. I applaud companies like Anonymizer, that are actually combating censorship and offering an anti-censorship solution to the people of China. Lance Cottrell, President of Anonymizer, has been a major figure in fighting internet censorship and has offered anti-censorship solutions to censored people all over the world. Even more impressive, this anti-censorshio solution is made available to the people of China for free. All they have to do is go to http://www.zidanchun.com and register. So far, this campaign has been very successful and it proves that governments are not capable of censoring everyone’s acces to the web.