Two Malaysian bloggers was sued and the whole community are up in arms at Blog . Jiboneus

Two Malaysian bloggers was sued and the whole community are up in arms

Published by J Shamsul 1 year, 5 months ago in Blogosphere, Malaysia.
Tags: Ahirudin Attan, blog, Bloggers United. No Fear, Blogosphere, Blog Culture, Jeff Ooi, Mainstream Media, Malaysia, Malaysian, rockys bru, Screenshots, The Star, Walk With Us.

I am very pleased in reading this report from The Star. ‘Bloggers must be responsible‘ the message our Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi giving out to all Malaysian bloggers.

I shall go through with the news report. This is going to be a long one, get a cup of coffee and make yourself confortable read this slowly so you could digest it better.

Qoute from the report: -

Bloggers must be responsible for what they write on the Internet as there are laws on defamation and sedition, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said.

The Prime Minister said these laws were enforceable and bloggers must bear in mind that they could not hide or take advantage of the Internet to do something that was against the law.

“They cannot hope to cover themselves or hide from the laws,” he told Malaysian journalists at the end of his three-day working visit here yesterday.

It’s amazing how far we bloggers had come. The word ‘blogger’ or ‘blog’ was not even in any dictionary untill just recently and now you keep seeing the word being use in mainstream news reporting.

If I still remember the lectures during my IT Act course, everything that is publish for the general public, to be consumed by the public, being distributed to the general public, be it on the internet or even on a toilet paper is subjected to laws on defamation and sedition.

Qoute from the report: -

He said bloggers, just like newspaper journalists, must be responsible for what they wrote or risk facing legal action from others.

All Malaysian bloggers should give yourself a pad on the back. Good job everyone. The government is taking us, the bloggers, seriously. Bloggers are like newspapers journalist, as what was reported. Yes that is true, in-fact a popular blog gets more viewing / readers then most major newspapers.

Qoute from the report: -

Abdullah was commenting on the legal action against bloggers Jeff Ooi and Ahirudin Attan by the New Straits Times Press (M) Bhd (NSTP), its deputy chairman Datuk Kali-mullah Masheerul Hassan, Group Editor in Chief Datuk Hishamuddin Aun and former Group Editor Brenden John Pereira.

Of cause that is what started this whole issue. I won’t be commenting about the details on this legal case because I do not read the New Straits Times, nor do I read the sensational seeker, controversial blogger Jeff Ooi’s blog, Screenshots and Ahirudin Attan blog, Rocky’s Bru.

Qoute from the report: -

He raised the question of “what was freedom without responsibility,” saying that laws must be respected.

To be creditable, for your blog to be creditable, you should be responsible on what you write. Which means other people could challenge you on what you wrote.

There was this case last time about a certain one blogger who writes a post about the lack of quality in the car which he just purchase from one of our local national car manufacturer. He wrote about what was broken or what came already broken. The lack of quality control on the car manufacturer’s part.

He then got a very nasty legal letter from the car manufacturer company. As usual the Malaysian blogosphere, the blogging community, were all up on arms against this. The company has ties with the local government therefore it’s a whole conspiracy. The government and big corporations are trying to silence the bloggers! We have to fight back!

But what most of the blogger did not notice is that, in the accused blog entry, he did not only write about how bad the car quality is. He also did write that a certain someone from the company pays a certain someone in order to get the whole batch of cars certified and approve for sale. That however with no prove is an slanderous statement that is meant to defamed.

If the blogger do has the prove of such action did take place, he should not be blogging about it right away, he should file a police report instead.

Again I do not know about the details of the NST vs Jeff Ooi and Ahirudin Attan. This blog entry is not to discuss on that.

What interest me, is that the government and the mass media now do take bloggers seriously. Lets all of us keep it that way by maintaining the integrity and credibility of our blogs.

I’ll put it like this, if you place yourself and your blog, image yourself and your blog to be something that reports facts, or news, make sure your post is credible. Double check your sources. Practice self censorship. Not everything can be bloged. A lot of other blogs got legal letters concerning certain new up-comming product being leak ahead of time. Employees were fired. It’s nasty.

However, if you image your blog as something entertaining, and you make it clear that nothing you write should be taken literally or seriously. Or you writing are fictions, then you could write whatever you wish. A disclosure would be nice.

Example: -

This blog is not based on any true events or any actual person. Any resemblance to true events or any actual person are purely coincidental unless said otherwise.

With all that was said, I would like other bloggers would ignore the “Bloggers United. No Fear” campaign. We are united in this for all the wrong reason. Do not walk with “Walk With Us“. Do not add more fuel to the fire.

There is no threat. Our government is not trying to silence the bloggers. Sadly most bloggers seem to think otherwise. It had created a sensational situation, fighting against the ‘man‘. Everybody wants to be a part of the action.

To all bloggers, keep blogging about whatever it is you are blogging about. If you do not already have a blog, now is the time to start one.

This case of bloggers being sued is actually a good sign for the Malaysian blogosphere, and the rest of the blogging community. This shows that bloggers are taken seriously here, which is good because there is a cirtain ‘buzz‘ about a cirtain blogger with another long time blogger are ‘buzzing’ and planning to create a blog network, a few blog that focus on different area of interest in Malaysia. I’ll ‘buzz‘ about this when the time comes. **wink** **wink**

There is no such thing as free speech or free press, no such thing as free lunch. Nothing is FREE, everything comes with a price. Please, to all free speech activists, try to grasp that concept.

LINK [ Bloggers must be responsible ]

Technorati Tags: Ahirudin Attan blog Bloggers United. No Fear Blogosphere Blog Culture Jeff Ooi Mainstream Media Malaysia Malaysian rockys bru Screenshots The Star Walk With Us

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11 Responses to “Two Malaysian bloggers was sued and the whole community are up in arms”

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1 freelunch2020 on Jan 24th, 2007 at 4:38 am

hey there nice post.

agree with most but i thikn the matter here is an irresponsible govt calling us to be responsible. it’s quite ludicrous.

i totally agree with what you say about freedom of speech but this case is complicated by the fact that its BIG MONEY vs small fry. imagine a 15-yr-old saying something silly and they take action~~~

i think this suit serves to educate bloggers but we cannot stand for this kind of indirect intimidation.

i did not put the bloggers united press statement up on my blog but their logo is there. they represent those who dare to voice their opinions against the big boys, whether there were libelous statements, the court will decide.

i don’t support the movement as i believe in responsible blogging but i support jeff + rocky individually as they are bloggers just like us. in times like these it’s only by sticking out for each other that we can fight the big guns

peace nice blog, i’ll be back.
2 menj on Jan 24th, 2007 at 6:15 am

No, I do not agree with your points at all, I think the logic is very flawed. If this is valid, then everyone can start suing everyone else for something they read on the World Wide Web which they do not agree with. And on the WWW, the Internet is supposed to be free.

- MENJ
3 J Shamsul on Jan 24th, 2007 at 6:42 am

freelunch2020:

Thanks,

Well someone must be the bigger person and be responsible. Why not the bloggers?

About 15-year-old saying something silly, well first of, they are 15 years old after all, and I do think parents do teach their children not to say things that are false, in order to defame someone.

If this suit serves to intimidate bloggers, well it doesn’t work on me.

Thanks again for visiting.
4 J Shamsul on Jan 24th, 2007 at 6:45 am

Menj:

You can’t go suing around based on something you do not agree with.

Companies and corporation take legal action only if they could prove whatever you write has a slanderous intention that tries to defame an image of a corporation or an individual by calming or creating false facts. If however you think that your facts are legitimate, you should not have anything to worry.

“And on the WWW, the Internet is supposed to be free.”

Again I would like to stress out that nothing is FREE, everything comes with a price.

The internet is not free. There are materials that will get you in trouble if you were found posting or distributing it online. Materials such as child pornography or copyrighted materials, software, video, music that you do not have the right to distribute, you can’t post it.
5 blogjunkie on Jan 24th, 2007 at 6:52 am

Hmm, looks like this is going to be a popular post.

I think what J is trying to say at the end of the day is that bloggers have to be responsible. Knowning some background about J, I can see why he’s excited that blogging is becoming mainstream. But to be mainstream is also to be respected and trusted, hence bloggers have to be responsible.

Like J, I also have not been following Jeff and Rocky’s case. I’m politically apathetical, I admit it, but I still feel that sometimes political bloggers try to get their points across by stirring the hornets nest and being sensationalistic.

In any case, I’m glad that this case has brought the public attention to blogs. However I’m not so worried that people will get the impression that bloggers are a bunch of trouble makers. All the cool kids blog now and by the time they’re adults, blogs and blogging will be mainstream like magazines on the newsstand.
6 Kris Khaira on Jan 24th, 2007 at 5:45 pm

An honest and logical article. Takes a lot of guts to write that especially when the biggest two camps are the ones shouting “free speech” and the other one shouting “sue them”.

I agree with Jibone that the Internet doesn’t exist in a legal vacuum. The Internet is just like any other medium. How can anyone say the Internet is free when the media on it is stored on servers located somewhere and transmitted through cables connecting these servers? The media on these servers end up complying with laws in the countries they’re located in. The authors of these media must also comply with the laws of their countries.

If the Internet is free, does that make credit card scamming, phishing and all that other online nonsense legal? What about child pornography on the Internet. Would that be free as well?

MENJ, If you mean free as in free access to the Internet, then yes it’s free in that sense. But it’s not a place where you can freely slander someone and spread lies and not expect someone to sue you later. We bloggers should just be careful with what we say and make sure we can back up what we write with facts. Similarly, we are free to speak, free to write but don’t expect to be able to freely spread lies and offend people without reaping the consequences.

People can sue you no matter what media you use. The Internet is no different. Look at how many journalists have been sued in the past. The only people who are afraid of being sued are people who can’t defend their words with evidence. Whether or not these lawsuits mean anything is up to the judiciary elements. If your conscience is clear and you have evidence to back your words up, there is nothing to fear. Whether Jeff Ooi and Rockybru are confident for these reasons is something that the court proceedings will reveal. I wish them luck in their case.
7 J Shamsul on Jan 26th, 2007 at 11:43 pm

Thanks for the comment,

I’m glad to see that there are people who sees my point. There are more and more people when heard about this case had asked me what is a ‘blog’? and what are ‘bloggers’? This is see as a good thing for bloggers as the general public now are more interested in what we (the bloggers are doing).

I tried to explain to them that bloggers are not just trouble makers and whistle blowers. There are a lot of other type of blogs.