Malaysia censors news portal August 29, 2008
Posted by Sverre in : Malaysia , trackback
A number of sources can report that the Malaysian government has ordered a ban on the popular independent news portal Malaysia Today, and Malaysian ISPs have reportedly complied. According to the website owner himself, Raja Petra Kamaruddin, the reason is his article “Malays, the enemy of Islam“, an attack on conservative Malay Islamism and corruption and abuse by the Malaysian Sharia court system.
The article in question is in my opinion neither well written nor particularly constructive in its criticism. Nevertheless it is a matter of course for me to defend the writer’s right to make the claims he does. Freedom of speech is natural to us in the west, not so in Malaysia. Malaysia has never had a completely free press. The government has always reserved itself a right to protect the people against statements that threaten racial harmony or public morale. And the Malaysian government has a long history of abusing this legislation to crack down on political opposition.
Malaysia claims to be a democracy, but this isn’t the behavior of a democratic state. It is further proof to the autocratic nature of the Malaysian regime.
Sources:
- Malaysia Today: “The offending article that got MT blocked“
- news.aol.com: “Malaysia ban on anti-government website draws outcry“
- Malaysiakini: “Malaysia Today ban – ‘Gestapo in action’“
- Unspun: “Blog ban sign of a more desperate Malaysian government?“
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[…] censorship is decreasing drastically. The internet has all but killed this. For example in the case of Malaysia Today, not only did the message still get out, but the actual censorship itself created much negative […]