2 Malaysian Bloggers sued by NSTP (New Straits Times Press)

A landmark case in Malaysia where for the 1st time, 2 bloggers who specialise on socio-politic topics were sued by New Straits Times Press (NSTP) over postings in their blogs that were deemed defamatory.

Who are these two bloggers?
1. Jeff Ooi (Screenshot) - The 1st blog that I encountered and I'm still reading his blog on a daily basis.
2. Ahirudin bin Attan (rocky's bru) - a retired journalist from Malay Mail.

Our Prime Minister responsed:
"Bloggers must be responsible for what they write on the Internet as there are laws on defamation and sedition. These laws were enforceable and bloggers must bear in mind that they could not hide or take advantage of the Internet to do something that was against the law.

They cannot hope to cover themselves or hide from the laws.

Bloggers, just like newspaper journalists, must be responsible for what they wrote or risk facing legal action from others." (TheStar, 24 Jan 2007)


The bloggers' community responses:

• Setting up a blogger legal fund to provide financial assistance for bloggers who face legal action
• Setting up WalkWithUs blog which provide more news and updates on this issue.

Let's view the issue from both sides - the bloggers and NSTP before we make our own judgement.