“Blogger held over insulting posting” by Jassmine Shadiqe

This article is about a 29-year-old Malaysian blogger named Aduka Taruna , whom was arrested for posting a purportedly offensive comment on his blog, not long after the death of the late sultan of Johor. Then, Johor police chief, Datuk Mohktar Shariff, warned the public not to say or comment on blogs that will insult, defame and offend the Government. It became a very serious case because there were more than 1,000 comments replied after Taruna’s ‘insulting post’ and most of the comments are said to be dissatisfaction. Although the blogger removed the posting and did a public apology, it was said that the apology made was assumed as an insult too.

(Source: adukataruna.blogspot.com)

As we can see, the issues that can be found in this article are issue such as blogosphere, blogging etiquette, new media ecosystem and ethical publishing. Although we have the rights to voice out our own opinion or known as ‘freedom of speech’, in some ethnics or countries, governments are the one who take controls of everything. Therefore, freedom of speech is not applied to certain ethnics and countries.

(Source: socialdesigner.com)

According to Smeltzern (2008, pp. 1), blogging in Malaysia “has the potential to serve as a democratizing force in a country with little freedom of expression. Democratic prospect of the local blogosphere must be tempered, however, with a realistic understanding of its restrictions and of the government’s hegemonic, and sometimes coercive, mechanisms of control.” This means that there isn’t any freedom of speech in Malaysia, even in blogging, especially in political and government subject. As the 1Malaysia concept is going on now, it is funny that the public cannot voice out their own opinion because if they do, they would get arrested for ‘insulting’ the country. In addition, it is said that the Malaysian government had give their word not to censor the internet, come to think of it; the government are the one who are actually controlling the public because according to the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Content Code “the online environment is not a legal vacuum. In general, if something is illegal ‘off-line’, it will also be illegal ‘on-line’. In this matter, the relevant existing laws apply” (Smeltzern 2008, pp. 1). Well, it is obvious that Malaysian bloggers do not have the freedom to critic their own country as the mainstream media is controlled by the government itself.

(Source: Sloone.files.wordpress.com)

Therefore, I think that it is hard for Malaysia to improve their status and still be the Malaysia today in the future. Also, Malaysian should not underestimate the governments’ ability and power as Malaysia is a country that is controlled by the state of apparatus completely.

References

Shadiqe, J 2010, “Blogger held over insulting posting,” New Straits Times, viewed 14 June 2010,

< http://yquake.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/articles/12eiss/Article/index_html>

Smeltzer, S.C 2008, “Blogging in Malaysia: Hope for a New Democratic Technology?” Journal of International Communication, pp. 1-18, viewed 14 June 2010,
< http://www.cprsouth.org/wp-content/uploads/drupal/Sandra_Smeltzer.pdf>