GEORGE TOWN, JUNE 7- Any regulation on online portals violates the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) Bill of Guarantees that there will not be any internet censorship, said Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng.
He said DAP regretted that Communications and Multimedia Minister Ahmad Shabery Cheek was breaking the federal government’s earlier promise of not censoring the internet in wanting to regulate online portals.
“Such proposed regulation is not progress but regression. Where is BN’s Janji ditepati?” asked Lim in his blog statement, calling on Putrajaya not to emulate Singapore in regulating online portals.
As Ahmad Shabery now considered online portals to be the mainstream media, Lim said the minister wanted to control cyber media in the same way BN controls the mainstream media.
Lim said the minister’s suggestion to regulate the internet showed that he was worse than his predecessor Rais Yatim in failing to take a national or international perspective, and pandering to Umno in preparation for the party election this year.
The DAP secretary-general said this appeared to be the main agenda after online news portals were blamed for causing BN to lose the popular vote for the first time in history in the 2013 general election.
“BN appears to blame everyone except itself, from the Chinese community to the online news portals,” he added.
Lim wanted Ahmad Shabery to grant press freedom instead of trying to further choke any limited space of press freedom found on the internet.
“Why should Malaysia follow Singapore in regulating online portals when Singapore performed worse than Malaysia in press freedom?” asked Lim.
According to Reporters Without Borders, Lim said Malaysia fell 23 places from 2012 to 145 this year in the 2013 Press Freedom Index because “access to information is becoming more and more limited.”
He said Reporters Without Borders stated that Malaysia’s “sorry record” was caused by the government’s repeated efforts to censor information.
“Despite an all-out battle by rights activists and online media outlets, a campaign of repression by the government, illustrated by the crackdown on the Bersih 3.0 protest in April, and repeated censorship efforts, continue to undermine basic freedoms, in particular the right to information,” he quoted the report.
Lim said only Singapore performed worse than Malaysia at 149th place. “Is Malaysia going to compare itself with the better or the worse ones?” he asked.
