Sunday July 29, 2007

Watch your blogs, warns PM

KUANTAN: Bloggers are as liable for defamation as publishers of printed materials, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi warned.

Commenting on the on-going debates regarding bloggers and their comments in Internet postings, the Prime Minister added:

“It is wrong for bloggers to go overboard, especially if they post slanderous articles against the Yang di-Pertuan Agong and Islam on the website,” he told reporters here yesterday.

“This is not something one can take lightly,” Abdullah added.

On July 25, Malaysia Today's Raja Petra Kamarudin, 57, was called in to record a statement for allegedly posting a series of comments and remarks that insulted the King, degraded Islam and incited hatred and violence in Malaysia’s multi-racial society.

In KOTA BARU, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz said the allegations against Inspector-General Tan Sri Musa Hassan and former Anti-Corruption Agency director-general Datuk Seri Zulkifli Mat Noor were proof of blogs being used to post slander.

He advised bloggers to exercise caution in their articles so as not to cause injustice to the person or persons involved.

He also advised those with evidence of corruption against public servants or politicians to report directly to the ACA and not to bloggers.

In KIMANIS, Sabah, Umno Youth deputy chief Khairy Jamaluddin said the party had no intention of asking the Government to censor the Internet but wanted legal action taken against bloggers who spread lies and slander through cyberspace.

He said the party had, for a long time, ignored such bloggers but the situation had reached a point where “it looked like there are no laws in cyberspace except the laws of the jungle.”

Khairy said bloggers must realise that they were not above the law and that “cyberspace is not a place for lawlessness.”

He said Umno would be keeping close tabs on the various blogs.

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