Malaysia
Government warns media against using blogsPosted Apr 20 2007
The Malaysian government issued the second warning in a month to the mainstream media not to use information from the Internet, specifically information obtained from blogs. Information Minister Zainuddin Maidin called the content posted on blogs “provocative, inaccurate and politically motivated,” according to The Center for Independent Journalism Malaysia (CIJ), a media advocacy organization. The statement posted on the Ministry's Web site also said that journalists who use the online information give blogs “undeserved credit.” The first warning came from the Ministry of Internal Security, which is headed by the Prime Minister. CIJ has condemned the warnings and speculates that the government crackdown is in response to a high-profile corruption case that was first reported in the blogosphere, “[which] reinforces the impression that the government has an agenda to limit public discussion and control public opinion.”