Well, here’s a bit of double talk. First, Communications Minister Dr Lim Keng Yaik said the Government won't censor the Internet including bloggers’ contents.
But subsequently he said investigations would be conducted once a police report was lodged against a blogger. According to Dr Lim, our men in blue will be a form of control against bloggers who post seditious, malicious and defamatory articles on the Internet.
Orwellian 1984’s Big Brother is now here more than ever.
Lim said: “The police report will be a form of control by the Government to ensure bloggers do not the break the law. Certainly, there is room for dissent but bloggers must realise that they cannot publish lies.”
What about opinions? Like, I think the Police aren’t apolitical as they bloody well ought to be. There, I have gone and done it.
Oooooh, BTW ;-) The IGP did admit to police being not apolitical when he briefed BN’s backbenchers why they (BN politicians) shouldn’t support the formation of the IPCMC - for clarification, read my previous posting Royal Malaysian Police Warns UMNO!
Apart from the police reports, Dr Lim said that the Government, through the MCMC and Mimos, would monitor certain websites to ensure that they did not cross the line. He advised people not to abuse the Government’s decision to leave the Internet uncensored.
Certain websites? I wonder which website, but I have never heard such double talk, that police, Mimos and MCMC would keep their beady eyes on us but the Internet won’t be censored. His warnings represent a very threatening form of censorship!
PM AAB had started the '1984' ball rolling by warning those who spread untruths and slander on the Internet would face the law.
Now, his deputy Internal Security Minister Fu Ah Kiow said some bloggers should be more sensitive of the items they post on websites. And he pinpointed Jeff Ooi as one of those bloggers who was … er … 'not-sensitive-enough' . He said Jeff had misreported him, and should have ensured he had his facts right in his website.
Fu also said Malaysiakini was another example of a website which had misreported the spraying incident involving Dr Mahathir in Kota Baru. I'll blog on the police investigation of Malaysiakini soon.
Then Fu admitted to a need for self-censorship of articles so as not to offend any group or religion or cause disharmony.
Self-censorship eh? Now, what was it I said about Dr Lim's warnings?
Dr Mahathir, the man who promised no censorship on the Internet, has unwittingly been the indirect cause of the government's current angst against bloggers and independent online news portal.
Related:
(1) Malaysia an Orwellian's 1984?
(2) Ops 'Tiga Monyet Bijak'
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