Malaysia's new information minister has pledged not to impose curbs on bloggers, who have been accused by other government officials of spreading lies and undermining public stability.
Internet commentators played a key role in recent general elections by catering to voters who wanted an alternative source of news besides television and newspapers, Information Minister Ahmad Shabery Cheek told reporters late on Friday.
"If there is something newsworthy, I don't see anything wrong in them posting it," the national news agency Bernama and the New Straits Times daily quoted Ahmad Shabery as saying. "Everyone has the freedom to use the blogs as an information distribution center."
The remarks by Ahmad Shabery, who took over the ministry on Wednesday, reflect a softening in the government's stance toward bloggers.
His predecessor and other officials have repeatedly criticized bloggers and warned that new laws could be crafted to rein in bloggers who dispense malicious or false rumors that could stir tensions.
CRITICS
Some of Malaysia's most popular blogs offer political commentaries that include criticism of government policies, presenting themselves as a substitute to mainstream media that are controlled by or closely linked to ruling political parties.
Opposition groups credit the Internet for helping to convince voters to turn against the ruling National Front coalition in March 8 elections.
The coalition remained in power, but lost its two-thirds parliamentary majority and retained control of only eight of Malaysia's 13 states.
The diminished showing was attributed to public dissatisfaction over rising prices, corruption scandals and racial and religious tensions.
Ahmad Shabery said that he planned to meet with bloggers soon to "better understand their sentiments and give them an avenue to express themselves," the New Straits Times reported.
"Bloggers' views cannot be ignored," the minister was quoted as saying. "We've overlooked their roles and failed to understand their feelings."
Ministry officials could not immediately be contacted.
PROPS
Many Malaysian bloggers welcomed Ahmad Shabery's comments in postings online.
"Way to go, Mr. Info. Minister," wrote blogger S.K. Thew. "I'm here to give you the benefit of doubt since you've shown the courage to engage us."
Worries about online freedom mounted last year after a government-linked newspaper filed defamation lawsuits against two prominent bloggers, who were accused of posting allegedly libelous statements about the paper's editors and executives.
In a separate instance, an opposition party blogger was detained by police for five days over comments posted on his Web site that linked a deputy minister to corruption.
‘GROSS NEGLIGENCE?’ Despite a spleen typically being significantly smaller than a liver, the surgeon said he believed Bryan’s spleen was ‘double the size of what is normal’ A Florida surgeon who is facing criminal charges after allegedly removing a patient’s liver instead of his spleen has said he is “forever traumatized” by that person’s death. In a deposition from November last year that was recently obtained by NBC, 44-year-old Thomas Shaknovsky described the death of 70-year-old William Bryan as an “incredibly unfortunate event that I regret deeply.” Bryan died after the botched surgery; and last month, a grand jury in Tallahassee indicted Shaknovsky on a charge of manslaughter. “I’m forever traumatized by it and hurt by it,” Shaknovsky added, also saying that wrong-site surgeries can happen “during
Kouri Richins, a Utah mother who published a children’s book about grief after the death of her husband is to serve a life sentence for his murder without the possibility of parole, a judge ruled on Wednesday. Richins was convicted in March of aggravated murder for lacing a cocktail given to her husband, Eric Richins, with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl at their home near Park City in 2022. A jury also found her guilty of four other felonies, including insurance fraud, forgery and attempted murder for trying to poison her husband weeks earlier on Feb. 14, 2022, with a
Former Chinese ministers of national defense Wei Fenghe(魏鳳和) and Li Shangfu (李尚福) were both sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve over graft charges, state news agency Xinhua reported on Thursday, underscoring the severity of the purge in the military. The armed forces have been one of the main targets of a broad corruption crackdown ordered by Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) after coming to power in 2012. The purges reached the elite Rocket Force, which oversees nuclear weapons as well as conventional missiles, in 2023. Earlier this year they escalated further, resulting in the removal of the top general in
‘PERSONAL MISTAKES’: Eileen Wang has agreed to plead guilty to the felony, which comes with a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison A southern California mayor has agreed to plead guilty to acting as an illegal agent for the Chinese government and has resigned from her city position, officials said on Monday. Eileen Wang (王愛琳), mayor of Arcadia, was charged last month with one count of acting in the US as an illegal agent of a foreign government. She was accused of doing the bidding of Chinese officials, such as sharing articles favorable to Beijing, without prior notification to the US government as required by law. The 58-year-old was elected in November 2022 to a five-person city council, from which the mayor is selected
RSS