'Press law amendments in time for next GE'

Harakahdaily

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 28: The Home Ministry’s proposed amendment to the draconian Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984 (PPPA), enabling the government to also keep a tab on online publications, blogs and social network pages, has been described as part of Barisan Nasional’s preparation for the next general election. PAS Perak information chief Khalil Idham Lim said the proposal showed the government's feared the new media users and their courage to speak the truth. “Whatever reasons given by the Home Minister to amend the PPPA, I see it nothing more than an early preparation for BN to face the 13th general election,” said Khalil. Describing the amendment as ridiculous and regressive, Khalil said a lot of news contents online were responsible and deal only with facts. "We post something which is real, and this cast worry to BN leaders,” said Khalil, who also blogs. Earlier, Home Ministry secretary-general Mahmood Adam said the proposed amendment was meant to plug "loopholes" and widen the definition of 'publication' to cover Internet contents, blogs or Facebook due to the changing landscape in information technology. “We hope the amendments will be tabled in Parliament by March this year because we need to overcome weaknesses, especially those involving multimedia contents,” he was quoted as saying. 'No money to pay bloggers' Khalil however said the step was regressive. “Malaysia should be ashamed when other countries are more open in their democratic system. "By controlling the people’s right to speak on the Internet media, democracy in Malaysia is almost buried,” he added. Khalil said people had grown tired by the pro-BN print media which he said were more focused to praising the government. He also speculated the move may be due to UMNO’s inability to continue financing its mercenary bloggers. “The proposal to me also shows that BN has grown tired of the antics of pro BN bloggers which have been paid handsomely. What’s more when the pro-BN’s webs only publish what I consider as rubbish and deliberately create false stories,” he said. http://bit.ly/ehraJX