We had just touched on Wikipedia and why it may not be useful in any sort of academic venture or publication. However, it is not just the source of information that needs to be considered when it comes into publishing; laws come into play too. For the sake of brevity, this will focus on a few Malaysian legal factors that may affect online publication decisions.
First, the Communications and Multimedia Act (CMA). It prohibits illegal interception of communications, sets rules for computer searches, establishes rules for searches of computers, mandates encryption key access, and gives law enforcement the due ability to intercept communications without a warrant if it is believed to contain information relevant to an investigation (Privacy and Human Rights 2003). This is added to the Communications and Multimedia Commission Act (CMCA) which together with CMA regulates information technology and multimedia resources (OpenNet Initiative 2007). This commission (in conjunction with CMA) maintains that content published on the internet needs to be regulated in order to protect online content from being “indecent, obscene, false, menacing, or offensive in character with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass any person,” (OpenNet Initiative 2007). However, crimes pertaining to CMA have normally been either ignored or superseded by other laws, such as the Internal Security Act, also known as the ISA (Privacy and Human Rights 2003).
Use of the Internal Security Act can detain a person for 60 days, which can then be extended to two years, then extended again a couple more years, no trial necessary, so long as that person is seen as a detriment to the country’s security (South Asia Human Rights Documentation Centre 2002). The government has already used it on four people who were said to have been instigating false reports of riots and violence against Chinese Malaysians online (Communications Law in Transition Newsletter 2000).
One other law that affects online publications is the Sedition Act. This act limits freedom of expression by making any speech judged to be seditious a crime; this includes anything that incites hatred or contempt of the government, incites hostility or ill-will to different races, questions the constitutional privileges given to Malays and Sabah/Sarawak natives (Human Rights Watch n.d.). This act has most recently been used to imprison Raja Petra, the first blogger to be charged by the Sedition Act in Malaysia (Mageswari & Kaur 2008), which shows that the act is applicable to online publications.
These laws all deal with the idea that information that needs to be regulated on the internet. Please take these laws into consideration when you publish something on the internet, if you’re Malaysian. If you’re not, please take your respective country’s laws on communications and online media publications into account.
References
Mageswari, M & Kaur, M 2008, Blogger Raja Petra taken to prison after declining bail on sedition charge, The Star Online, viewed 11 June 2008, <http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/5/7/nation/21167472&sec=nation>
Privacy and Human Rights 2003,
Human Rights Watch n.d., The Sedition Act: Repressive laws, viewed 11 June 2008, < http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/malaysia/2000/laws-sedition.htm>
South Asia Human Rights Documentation Centre 2002,
Communications Law in Transition Newsletter 2000,
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