mamakk!!!

via SMH:

Malaysia’s former premier Mahathir Mohamad Wednesday emerged as an unlikely champion for the country’s bloggers, arguing they provide a valuable source of news. Mahathir, who in recent months has complained he was being censored by mainstream media, said people were turning to blogs and online news journals because of Malaysia’s tightly controlled media.

“There is no doubt that bloggers have provided us with an alternative source of news. By and large, they have been responsible,” Mahathir said after speaking at a conference on the media and national development. “At the moment, with the atmosphere prevailing in the country, many people are turning to the bloggers for news,” he said.

“That is what the government should learn, if you suppress news then the alternative source will gain credence,” said the former leader, whose daughter Marina has her own blog.

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[pic source]

via SMH:

Malaysia may introduce tough Internet laws to control bloggers and prevent them from spreading “disharmony, chaos, seditious material and lies” on their websites, a report has said.

Deputy Science and Technology Minister Kong Cho Ha said moves such as registering bloggers would be difficult, but accused some writers of posting controversial articles to attract readers.

“We are talking about creating cyber laws to control those who misuse the Internet,” Kong was quoted as saying in the Star newspaper.

“We need to have stricter cyber laws to prevent these bloggers from disseminating disharmony, chaos, seditious material and lies,” he said.

What??? Maybe the govt should mull sedition laws against politicians first before trying to silence the masses…

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More from other blogs:

• The Malaysian: Mainstream Media Told To Discredit Blogs, While Some Want Them Compulsorily Registered.
• midnite lily: Registering the blogsphere
• 5xmom: Cyber law mulled to block lies in blogs. Really? Heh!
• whereinsoever: bloggers are not members of the media!
• PPE: Sex, Lies & Blogs
• rockybru: Blog Ethics
• Aisehman: Malaysia, Truly Bodoh
• whatalulu: Lulu May Have To Register Her Blog?
• Screenshots: Blogs… And yet another ‘penembak curi’

Well, we published this a few days earlier, but here’s something new about Malaysia.

via theStar:

KUALA LUMPUR: If you are a Malaysian and you have your own blog, the odds are that you’re a woman, aged 25 or under.

64% of local bloggers are female and 74% of them are in that age group. It found that 41% of Malaysians who went online also blogged.

The survey found that 56% of Malaysians blogged to express passionately held views, while 49% blogged to keep friends and family updated. Some 34% just like having a little corner of cyberspace to call their own.

Only a small number, about 3%, said they were practising “citizen journalism.” As for blog-reading habits, 63% of respondents said they read blogs for entertainment, while technology, travel and music were the three most widely read blog topics across Asia and in Malaysia .

The majority of blog readers, 81%, are most interested in blogs written by friends or family. Far behind in popularity are blogs by celebrities, pop stars and workmates.Blogs by business leaders and politicians garner the least interest.

Blog readers said they looked for good writing and plenty of pictures.

Girl Power!!!

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More from other blogs:

[more…]

via theStar:

A recent research study conducted by Universal McCann, based on a sample size of 4,670 respondents, revealed that 40% of Malaysian netizens (regular Internet users) spent more than three hours daily on the Net.

Of the Malaysian netizens, 31% click on video and animated banner advertisements, 27% participate in promotions, and 41% read sponsored pages at least once weekly. And 42% of Internet users visit gaming sites (30% once a week or less, while 12% several times a week) and 46% visit social networking sites (20% not more than once a week and 26% several times a week).

The survey also revealed that 35% of Malaysian netizens are active bloggers with about one-quarter responding or writing about brands and services experienced.

“These bloggers can actually influence the fate of brands, and the growing number of passive bloggers who visit and read blogs of people they personally know is not small enough that they can be ignored,” he said.

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via BBC:

Tony Blair’s outgoing chief strategy adviser fears the internet could be fuelling a “crisis” in the relationship between politicians and voters. Matthew Taylor - who stressed he was speaking as a “citizen” not a government spokesman - said the web could be “fantastic” for democracy.

But it was too often used to encourage the “shrill discourse of demands” that dominated modern politics.

“We have a citizenry which can be caricatured as being increasingly unwilling to be governed but not yet capable of self-government,” Mr Taylor told the audience. Like “teenagers”, people were demanding, but “conflicted” about what they actually wanted, he argued.

“What is the big breakthrough, in terms of politics, on the web in the last few years? It’s basically blogs which are, generally speaking, hostile and, generally speaking, basically see their job as every day exposing how venal, stupid, mendacious politicians are.

Power of blogs? Or are bloggers too quick to publish their thoughts?

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