Blogging without freedom?

Malaysian bloggers are currently in the centre attention of the government but is the Malaysian bloggers who went out-of-control or was it the government being too “protective”.

According to The Star Malaysia, the Deputy Energy, Water and Communication Minister Datuk Shaziman Abu Mansor has announced that bloggers using local hosted website may have to register themselves if they plan to continue blogging. The action is to prevent any rumor spreading on the internet. However, the action was disagreed by Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang who is also a blogger. Lim states that the minister should understand more about the benefits of blogging which helps them to communicate with more people. (The Star 2007)

I personally agree with Marina Mahathir for saying “The move is just going to make Malaysia look ridiculous in the eyes of the world.”(The Star 2007) There is no doubt that bloggers do bring a thread to the government, however, the stricter the government is, the rebellious the public be.

Internet still has its stand as chief editor of MalaysiaKini , Steven Gan (2007) pointed out the four characteristics of the internet. The four characteristics include the non-hierarchical nature where information is distributed to everyone equally and internet as an interactive tool where the readers give instant feedback. Thus, the arrangement of prose and graphics may influence the meaning making of the reader. (Schriver 2003) Besides that, internet as is also a globalization for information to be distributed worldwide. Hence, it is uneasy to control the internet. For example, Malaysia government tried to control Malaysiakini from disseminating certain news, but it is near impossibility as Malaysiakini is not locally hosted.

Reference List:

2007, Bloggers May Have To Register [Online, accessed 4 June 2997].
URL: http://star-techcentral.com/tech/story.asp?file=/2007/4/5/technology/20070405153418&sec=technology

Gan, S. 2002, ‘Virtual Democracy: The Walkley Magazine, pp.14-15.

Schriver, K.A. 2003, ‘Chapter six: The interplay of words and pictures’, The Dynamics of Document Design: creating texts for readers, Wiley Computer Pub., New York.