Have you heard the one about the national newspaper that sued the bloggers?

Fellow comrades,



That's right. Bloggers Jeff Ooi and Ahirudin Attan were both sued by the Malaysian daily newspaper New Straits Times. A news-site's take on the news was rather interesting, particularly its headline. I have been an avid reader of their blogs. They have a knack for exposing unfavourable, yet rarely heard, news about the government. Their articles are always fresh and honest. It is very worrying that this has happened, as the internet is the only independent medium to obtain information. Bloggers, particularly Malaysians, will fear for their income everytime they hit the "publish" button, which may result in less people willing to speak up. Independent Malaysian news-sites, such as Malaysia Today, Malaysiakini and others, have improved greatly since they began to prop up in the late-90s (when the Anwar Ibrahim scandal burned the bellies of Malaysians to obtain alternative news). They have turned themselves from poorly-designed, hosted-by-geocities sites to well-maintained ones. Even my uni subscribes to Malaysiakini. Back to the libel suit. The Wall Street Journal's and Barron magazine's online articles have been sued before. The WSJ case, which was heard in the U.K., was thrown out since only five people have read it. However, the judges in the Barron case, which was heard in Australia, allowed for it to be sued, albeit the article was only read by nine people. The results of the Malaysian case will be very, very interesting indeed.


Godspeed,
Fadli


Of what use is freedom of speech to those who fear to offend? - Roger Ebert