Social media users focus of Sedition Act change

 

The burden to prove seditious or defamatory remarks made inside and outside social media are among the matters that will be scrutinised in a bid to improve the Sedition Act 1948.

Communication and Multimedia Minister Ahmad Shabery Cheek said the burden to prove actual sedition and defamation, including for the cases brought to courts, should be taken into consideration as many social media users
were using their nicknames or fake identity.

"There's a suggestion for all media users to register (their true identity) with the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC). Logically, is it doable, but technically, challenges await because some individuals registered as social media users, such as Facebook, from overseas.

"In fact, Facebook is not registered under the MCMC. The public need to understand this," he said after launching the trailer for new 3D animated movie, AMUZ Space Series for Kidz in Kuala Lumpur today.

Also present was astronaut Dr Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor (left).

Ahmad Shabery also said Facebook registration did not require users to share their detailed information and this made it difficult to prove the identity of persons who abused the social media.

Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak recently announced that the
Sedition Act would be maintained with improvements so that it would remain relevant with the change of time.

Ahmad Shabery explained that it was also a big challenge for any country, including the developed ones, to prove that a social media user had committed a defamation or sedition offence.

"Maybe the other alternative is to foster cooperation with Facebook, Twitter and other social media, or to register IP addresses that will enable forensic work to be carried out to detect those involved," he said.

- Bernama

M’sia at the mercy of those spreading lies via the Internet

Zahid Hamidi says Malaysians must observe law, rules and regulations that prevent them from making provocative and racist statements.

FMT

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia is now under threat by those who use the Internet to spew lies, slander and hate, Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said.

Unlike other countries, he said Malaysia was not a single-race country, and being a multi-racial and multi-religious nation, the government had to monitor Internet activities and put a check to such unpleasant deeds.

Speaking at the Umno International Forum 2014 titled “Hyperconnectivity and the Social Media: Empowering Citizens to Build or Divide a Nation” here on Monday, Ahmad Zahid said the government had to be strict in stamping out any elements deemed to be disastrous to nation building.

He said each and every Malaysian must observe the law, rules and regulations that prevent them from making any provocative and racist statements as the consequences would be unbearable for everyone to take.

“We have learnt from the 1969 racial riots, and we have also learnt from several incidents involving communal and religious extremists. All these have summoned us to enact stringent laws to control the house from collapsing,” he said.

The minister said in enforcing the laws, the government did not and would not be biased or in simple words, the government would not compromise anything when it came to national security and stability.

Ahmad Zahid, who was one of the speakers at the forum, also stressed how the social networking sites had developed and shifted largely into news feeds and channels of information sharing.

He said a debate had been brewing about freedom of speech or freedom of expression in the context of social media and in open forums.

“I believe all of us, whether in Malaysia or abroad, have been following the developments that have and are taking place in the country.

“All these are the results of speedier Internet interconnectivity and an open access to various news sources,” he said.

He said the news comes in all forms, whether good or bad, pleasant or ugly, as well as the truth or fabricated lies to undermine the government, the country and the people.

The forum, which was held in conjunction with the Umno General Assembly 2014, was officiated by Prime Minister Najib Razak on Monday.

The two-day forum hosted some 127 foreign delegates from 34 political parties from 22 countries and diplomatic corps from almost 70 countries.

- BERNAMA

Internet Should Not Be A Medium For Stoking Racial Tension - Najib

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 24 (Bernama) -- Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, Monday reminded that the internet should not become a medium for stoking racial and religious tension in a plural society like in Malaysia.

Expressing his disappointment, he said at times, the internet has been used here (in Malaysia) to spread half-truths and even outright lies.

"For example, during the last general election, a host of unsubstantiated allegations were propagated online. It was said that the government was orchestrating blackouts at polling stations to change the ballot boxes and flying in 40,000 people across the nation to vote.

"These claims were all proven to be baseless lies, but not before they had been swallowed hook, line and sinker by many, and are doing real damage to our repututation," he said.

Najib said this while delivering his keynote address at the UMNO International Forum themed A Hyperconnected World: Challenges In Nation Building, held in conjunction with the 2014 UMNO General Assembly at the Putra World Trade Centre in Kuala Lumpur.

As such internet stories can go viral and take on a life on their own, prime minister reminded that people should be responsible and think about the content they share in the heat of the moment.

"The public needs to be discerning and understand that allegations on the internet should not be accepted as the absolute truth. The claims need to be questioned and evidence must be assessed.

"Education could play a role but it is very difficult. There is no perfect solution to this," he said.

Furthermore, he added that legitimate criticism should be encouraged, and that it was a part of healthy democratic debate although the content may at times cross the line, intrude personal privacy, break domestic laws or invoke physical harm.

On encouraging civil and responsible online debate, Najib raised a big question on how to ensure and go about it, hoping that some sub topics in the forum would discuss and provide possible ideas for the government to consider implementing.

--BERNAMA

Why broadband is slower and costlier in Malaysia

G Sharmila  KiniBiz
Malaysia has ambitions of becoming a developed nation in six years’ time, yet broadband speed and affordability remains a critical, unresolved issue. In fact, research shows that even Thailand is ahead of us in terms of broadband speed and affordability. Where did we go wrong?

Although Malaysia is targeting developed nation status by 2020, our broadband speeds are still lagging behind our closest neighbour Singapore, and even that of Vietnam and Thailand, as shown by a study in April this year by Asean DNA.

The study was highlighted in an article by Asean Briefing, which said that within Asean, Singapore and Thailand have the fastest average Internet speeds at 61 megabits per second (mbps) and 17.7 mbps. Vietnam has an average speed of 13.1 mbps while Cambodia has 5.7 mbps. Malaysia on the other hand, has an average speed of 5.5 mbps. The average Asean Internet speed is 12.4 mbps, which puts our broadband speed well below average.

What’s more disturbing is that while Malaysia lags behind in Internet speeds, it’s service comes at a much higher price – more than triple that of services in countries such as Singapore and Thailand on a comparable basis .

A Comparison of Broadband Speeds and Charges 090914 02For instance, Telekom Malaysia Bhd’s UniFi charges RM199 (US$62.40) a month for its 10mbps fibred Internet service, while as the article by Asean Briefing points out Singapore’s largest telco offers 15 mbps Internet for US$30 a month and Thailand charges around US$25 a month for 12 mbps speeds.

The root of the problem

To understand the root of the problem, it pays first to understand the national broadband policies of countries like Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Like Malaysia, all three have national broadband plans. However what differs in Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam is that their markets are deregulated, allowing for multiple broadband service providers to own infrastructure and offer broadband services. Competition in these markets fuels demand and supply, thus users are offered higher speeds at competitive prices.

The situation is very different in Malaysia. The fixed broadband market is dominated by government-linked incumbent Telekom Malaysia (TM), which owns 90% of telephone lines and fibre infrastructure in the country, say industry experts. In fact, it is the sole infrastructure provider for the High Speed Broadband (HSBB) project under the National Broadband Initiative (NBI). And the agreement between TM and the government for the HSBB falls under the Official Secrets Act.

Because TM owns last-mile access, other players are ‘forced’ to lease infrastructure from the incumbent to offer broadband services. Again, as an industry expert points out, the industry has been given the raw end of the deal as TM dictates wholesale rates to players who want to provide broadband services.

“Their (TM’s) wholesale rates are not as competitive as the market anticipated and this has left the other players no choice in the end but to offer higher-priced broadband services,” says the industry expert.

This dominance by one player has led to the present-day situation of high broadband prices and partly the near-stagnating broadband penetration rate. Ironically, a National Key Economic Area under the Economic Transformation Programme is to increase the penetration of high-quality and affordable broadband to 95% of the population by 2020. That’s a mere six years away yet our broadband speeds and prices are nowhere near that of Singapore, our closest neighbour.

Of course one may argue that household broadband penetration in Malaysia was only at 31.7% in 2009 and that this jumped to 55.6% in 2010 owing in part to the deployment of the first phase of the HSBB under the NBI.

However this includes the Streamyx service which is based on copper cabling and not fibre. If this is excluded, then broadband penetration can be lot lower. Also, 2010 was the year in which the true broadband service Unifi was introduced, which means that the large jump could be because of that.

The issue however, is that household broadband penetration does not seem to be increasing as fast as it should be in recent years. According to data from the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), as of the first quarter of this year, broadband penetration in Malaysia per 100 households was only 67.3%, compared to 66.6% during the same period last year. That’s a paltry year-on-year increase of 0.7 percentage points.

Analysts believe it won’t be long before broadband penetration hits a saturation point. “I believe saturation under normal circumstances should be closer to 80% (this can change if broadband becomes a basic utility just like electricity and water). If you see the breakdown by states (see table), you will have an idea why the broadband penetration has stayed around 67% in the past year. The low penetration is in rural and East Malaysia – the areas are ‘underserved’ by mobile players as well as fixed-line incumbent TM for broadband,” a telco analyst tells KiniBiz.

“It is a function of economics – the telcos will focus on urban areas first to maximise the returns on capital expenditure. For the mobile players, they have just extended 3G coverage to 80+% of population in the past year or so,” he added.

To achieve higher penetration rates, the government needs to take the lead, the analyst said. “To achieve 80+% penetration, the government will need to take the initiative and even allow the release/use of lower-band spectrum (e.g. 700MHz for longer-range 4G-LTE) so that the rural areas can benefit from wireless broadband. It does not make economic sense to ‘cable up’ rural and vastly populated areas. Hitting more than 90% penetration is a long shot,” he added.

The analyst pointed out also that fixed line broadband is still very expensive and that to push broadband penetration to the next level, prices have to drop. And that is going to be virtually impossible with one player dominating the broadband market.

“Maybe MCMC can require all telcos to provide a basic broadband package (with limited data usage) with low entry cost such as RM30 a month. In fact, the mobile players are pushing their prepaid clients to jump on the data bandwagon by offering ‘bite-sized’ data offerings to get prepaid users to use data. I suspect the broadband penetration may exceed 70% if mobile broadband gets more prevalent with the increasing availability of cheap smartphones,” the analyst explained.

The industry expert suggests that to level the playing field, the government should call for an open tender for the second phase of the HSBB project, due to start later this year. “However, TM still has the last mile connectivity. To open up a tender may prove difficult as TM already has a dominant position,” he said.

One may argue that having millions of broadband customers already means that TM has achieved the economies of scale to allow it to drop prices of its broadband packages. Yet customers continue to pay steep prices for even its ADSL services (Streamyx packages), while in other countries like Singapore, prices have dropped for ADSL packages as other wireless and fibred broadband technologies have overtaken ADSL.

Malaysia isn’t the only country that started out with an incumbent player. Even Singapore started out with SingTel as the only broadband player and South Korea with Korea Telecom. Yet these markets have evolved for the better and ours hasn’t. How did South Korea do it? In our next instalment, KiniBiz speaks to a South Korean expert on how the country achieved the high broadband penetration rates it has today.

Cops may use Sedition Act against online hate-mongers

The Star
by NADIRAH H. RODZI AND CHAN LI LEEN

KUALA LUMPUR: Police are considering using the Sedition Act 1948 against those who incite racial and religious hatred on social media.

It was not an easy task to detain and prosecute those committing such an offence due to the Internet being wide and without borders, said Deputy Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Mohd Bakri Zinin.

Mohd Bakri also refuted claims that the police are practising selective investigation and urged the public not to be quick to jump the gun.

“This is what most people don’t understand, each case is different and has different facts and circumstances.

“We would need to identify the real identities and produce solid evidence before taking action against them.

“Without all that, it is hard to drag them to justice. That is why we are considering using the Sedition Act to investigate these sort of cases,” he said at a press conference after the closing of the Ops Selamat 5/2014 at the Terminal Bersepadu Selatan yesterday.

On Friday, Federal CID director Comm Datuk Seri Mohmad Salleh said the police were going all out to track down those inciting racial and religious hatred.

Police urged the five people identified as online hate-mongers on social media sites to come forward.

The wanted culprits include a woman with the Facebook profile Vignamona VM, who called for religious schools to be disbanded, a man (FB profile Kelvin Yip), who allegedly insulted Islam over the Muslims’ call to prayer (azan), and a man depicted on YouTube kicking another man of a different race.

The other two are a man whose profile name is “Persatuan Kongsi Gelap Melayu”, responsible for posting provocative messages regarding an alleged racial riot in Klang, and Facebook user Mohd Adam Asyiq Balasubramaniam, who posted racial sentiments.

In Ipoh, Perak deputy police chief Deputy Comm A. Paramasivam denied there had been fights between a group of Malays and Indians in Buntong as claimed on Facebook.

“There were no such fights and the Kampung Baru police station was not surrounded by a group of Indians.

“Neither were there fights in front of the Ipoh Railway Station or at the Gerbang Malam,” he said during a press conference yesterday.

DCP Paramasivam said in actual fact, a motorcyclist had died after being knocked down in front of the police station last month.

“A group of devotees attending a festival at a Hindu temple nearby the police station caught wind of what happened and had gone there to see what was happening. There were no racial riots or murder. It was a road accident,” he said.

Kedah ruler: Social media abuse a threat to peace

The New Straits Times
by ADIE SURI ZULKEFLI

ALOR STAR: SULTAN of Kedah Tuanku Abdul Halim Mu’adzam Shah yesterday expressed concern over the alarming incidence of social media abuse, which can pose a threat to racial and religious harmony.

Tuanku Halim said the majority of the younger generation used social media to express their thoughts and views, while respecting racial, religious and traditional sensitivities.

He cautioned that liberalisation, as advocated in Western countries, was seen as modern and open, but it was unsuitable to the way of life in Malaysia.

“Religious and racial ideological tensions in our society, especially on social media platforms, demonstrate disrespect to decisions that had been agreed upon by the forefathers of all races during Independence,” he said in his speech at the opening of the Kedah State Legislative Assembly’s first meeting for the second term at Wisma Darulaman here.

The speech was read by Kedah Regency Council chairman Tan Sri Tunku Sallehuddin Sultan Badlishah. Present were his wife, Puan Sri Tengku Maliha Tengku Ariff, Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Mukhriz Mahathir, his wife, Tok Puan Norzieta Zakaria, executive councillors and assemblymen.

Tuanku Halim reminded the younger generation that the country, which gained independence in 1957, was built on the strength of the social contract of a multiracial society, based on toleration, moderation and mutual respect.

“Without the wisdom of our forefathers when we were fighting for independence, many current descendants would be stateless citizens. As such, it is imperative for all quarters to understand and respect basic rights, as stated in the Federal Constitution.”

Tuanku Halim hinted that having a uniform education system could be the long-term solution in resolving the issue.

“Perhaps, we are asking ourselves what is happening to our unity and racial integration. Prominent education sociologist E.D. Hirsch, in his book Cultural Literacy, said education was the most important tool in fostering unity in a country. He suggested that a united society could only be achieved through an integrated national education system.”

Tuanku Halim also expressed his condolences to the families of the victims of Malaysia Airlines flights MH370 and MH17, and urged the people to condemn Israel’s Zionist regime for committing a systematic genocide against the Palestinians.

At the start of the opening ceremony, the House recited prayers for the late former Kedah Regency Council chairman, Tunku Bendahara Tan Sri Tunku Annuar Sultan Badlishah, who died in May.

‘Enemies’ using internet to attack Islam, warns Jakim

By Malay Mail

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 8 — Federal Islamic authorities today joined the call for online attacks against Islam to be punished severely, following recent complaints that authorities were not vigorously pursuing non-Muslims for such activities.

Telling Muslims they were duty-bound to defend Islam against threats and insults proliferating on the Internet, the Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim) said these actions were against religion and the law, and urged for a crackdown against such cyber-attacks.

In its weekly Friday sermon, Jakim alleged of numerous cases where social media and communications technology have been used to demean Islam, belittle Malay sensitivities and insult the Malay Rulers.

“The actions of these groups pushes the limits of Muslims’ patience. With all sorts of insults before this, we no longer want any rude and uncivilised statements or actions by any party to pass without stiff action and maximum punishment under existing laws,” read the sermon, posted on Jakim’s website.

“Stiff and prompt action by the authorities is necessary so that this is not repeated and serves as a lesson to all to not play with fire and go overboard,” it added.

The sermon called on all Muslims to take up the role and responsibility of standing up to the challenge posed by Islam’s cyber-enemies, using “whatever reasonable means” including social media to protect the position of Muslims, especially in Malaysia.

It also urged Muslims not to be taken by the provocation they came across online, stressing the need for each and every Muslim to have a deep understanding of Islam while building their spiritual fortitude, knowledge, intellect, political maturity and unity among the faithful.

Jakim’s message comes amid a backdrop of recent complaints against the police, the Attorney-General’s Chambers, and the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) over perceived inaction against alleged non-Muslim attacks against Islam.

Detractors such as Umno Youth and the Umno-owned Utusan Malaysia daily have accused the agencies of “selective action”, contrasting the prosecution of a Malay road bully and Muslim preacher against the case of a Facebook user who remains at large despite a derogatory remark aimed at Muslims.

All three agencies have denied the allegations of bias towards non-Muslims, explaining that the complexities involved in each investigation precluded the use of one to benchmark the level of action in another.

Malaysia Wants To Improve Broadband Quality Especially In Rural Areas

By Minggu Simon Lhasa

BANGKOK, Nov 19 (Bernama) -- Malaysia not only wants to achieve 100 per cent penetration rate for Internet services, but also targets to improve the quality of the services, especially in rural areas.

"If possible, the country wants to achieve 100 per cent broadband penetration rate compared with 67 per cent currently, and for the next level, quality will be the main agenda in its broadband development for all," said Minister of Communications and Multimedia, Datuk Seri Ahmad Shabery Cheek.

He said this in an interview with Bernama on the sidelines of the ITU Telecom World 2013 which opens here Tuesday.

In the next few years, the government has targeted Internet speed for residential in rural areas to be at 4-10 megabit per second (Mbps), he said, which in his view was still not satisfactory.

The suitable speed in the future, he said, is at 40-50 Mbps for residential but for schools and others, the speed needed to be faster.

He said to achieve the agenda, the present model is via cooperation between the government and the private sector, and secondly, was to find ways to ensure that the private sector don't think of building infrastructure only in places where they think is profitable.

The other model was to find new technology so that it is cost-effective, he said.

He said the thinking should also change in that broadband is not a luxury infrastructure but a necessity.

He said Malaysia's efforts in expanding the use of broadband had become an example among the community at the international level.

For instance, Malaysia has utilised the Universal Service Provider (USP) fund to build telecommunication towers in rural areas which received less attention from telecommunication companies as they are seen as less profitable, he said.

Social media a threat to Islam, internet controls a must, Muslims told in Friday sermon

(MM) - Putrajaya should rethink its decision against policing the internet as Islam's “enemies” have resorted to launching cyber attacks to challenge the religion of over 60 per cent of Malaysians, the country's foremost Islamic authority said in today's sermon disseminated to Muslims nationwide.

The Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim) alleged that “enemies of Islam” were prowling social media platforms, purportedly to topple the governments of Muslim-majority nations, with a nod to the conflict-riddled Middle East as an example.

“The pulpit would like to state that the abuse and misuse of the internet and telecommunications technology is against religious obligations, laws and community conduct.

“Believe it, using social media to weaken the resolve of Muslims is actually a sly strategy by the enemies of Islam which have been successful in bringing down several Islamic countries in the Middle East,” Jakim stated in its sermon, which is also available on its website.

“Therefore, the suggestions that the internet should be censored and controlled must be considered so that this facility does not end up destabilising the public and country.”

The people of Egypt, Libya and Syria had joined in the Arab Spring revolution to overthrow authoritarian rulers despite full Internet shutdown by their governments, but social media was said to have played a part in spreading their message to a global audience.

Jakim's suggestion today followed calls by Malaysia's former prime minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, for the internet to be filtered due to rampant abuse in the distribution of pornography, questionable news and slanders.

Dr Mahathir, who had promised the federal government would never censor the internet when he opened up Malaysia's information superhighway over a decade ago, has been pressing the Najib administration for a policy change, arguing that today's changing situation warranted the introduction of controls to stem the spread of offensive material online as it could threaten national security.

In today's sermon, Jakim accused international powers of an organised ploy to spread teachings such as liberalism and pluralism to the youths through the internet.

“They have launched subtle and organised attacks by spreading news that insult Islam and its adherents whether through symbols, websites, blogs, or social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and so on,” the sermon said.

Jakim has been steadfast in its attack on what it perceived as a global conspiracy against Islam, singling out ideas such as liberalism, pluralism, feminism, socialism and even positivism.

In a sermon for the Aidilfitri celebration in August, Jakim had warned Muslims nationwide against a conspiracy by “enemies of Islam”, suggested that “colonial” ideas were being used to incite challenges against Islam’s position in the Constitution.

Malaysia is already practising internet censorship, with the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) announcing last week that it has blocked 2,753 websites for violating the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 and other regulations so far this year.

Of those, 15 websites were blocked for allegedly infringing the Syariah Criminal Offences Enactment, while the bulk of it at 2,611 were phishing sites.

Malaysia's Internet Conundrum

Mahathir reconsiders

Authorities would like to shut opposition sites, but former PM promised it would stay free
In August of 1996, when he launched the 50 km-long Multimedia Super Corridor between Kuala Lumpur and Malaysia’s new international airport in an attempt to lure high-tech startups to his country, then-Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad made a promise to prospective international investors that the Internet would remain forever free from political interference.

It is a promise that successive governments – and belatedly perhaps Mahathir himself – have had trouble keeping or wish had never been made, as exemplified by the raid last week on Malaysiakini, with 300,000 daily readers the biggest of the flock of independent or opposition news sites that have altered Malaysia’s political landscape.

Fifteen policemen showed up at the news organization’s offices in the Kuala Lumpur suburb of Petaling Jaya to demand information about a writer who posted a long argument that basically asked why ethnic Malays had to be Muslims, among other things.

That was just the latest in a continuing list of actions against Malaysiakini. Others have included various police threats and DDOS (directed denial of service) attacks, in which hundreds of responses to a story or other item on the site flood servers and clog them up, shutting down the site. Steven Gan, the editor of Malaysiakini, and Premesh Chandran, the business director, have been called to give statements to the police on the site’s funding.

Nor is Malaysiakini alone. Three other news sites – Malaysian Insider, Free Malaysia Today and the Sarawak Report say they have come under varying degrees of harassment. A fourth site, Malaysia Today, is published by Raja Petra Kamarudin from outside the country after he was threatened with criminal libel and sedition charges.

There are plenty more opposition sites as well. With the mainstream media completely in government hands, Malaysia has grown one of the most intensive opposition online communities anywhere.

Now with the country having been gearing up for months for elections scheduled for April next year, the presence of these particular news sites, none of which are pro-government, has become a major preoccupation for the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition. The sites are considered to have played a major role in the 2008 election which ended the Barisan’s 50-year stranglehold on the Parliament, for the first time breaking its two-thirds lock which allowed it to pass legislation at will.

The sites provide the only independent or pro-opposition news in the country. The mainstream papers and television channels are all owned by the major political parties, reporting in Chinese, Tamil, Malay and English languages. The papers, particularly the Malay language ones, provide a steady diet of hagiographic if not outright sycophantic coverage of pro-government politics and do their best to skewer the opposition.

The opposition sites have continued to break a long series of stories that are antithetical to the political aims of the government, often taking particular aim at such figures as Rosmah Mansor, Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s wife, whose reputation for outsize spending on jewelry, deserved or not, has become a major point of controversy.

The blogs also carried voluminous materials on the so-called Cowgate scandal, in which the family of Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, the head of the Women’s wing of UMNO, was accused of misusing RM250 million (US$83 million) in funds for a cattle feed lot to pay for condominiums, vacations, a Mercedes–Benz sedan and other items having nothing to do with feeding cattle. A long series of other scandals has continued to dog the government, faithfully reported by the opposition media.

Asia Sentinel’s reporting on a €150 million scandal in which the French government-owned defense contractor DCN allegedly paid massive kickbacks to Malaysian politicians in exchange for picking DCN subsidiaries to supply submarines to the defense ministry has also been given wide play in the country. Asia Sentinel was hit by one DDOS attack which shut the website down for several hours and is regularly attacked by what obviously are paid letter-writers.  The stories have also been attacked by pro-goverment bloggers reportedly paid for by political party funds.

The government wasn’t particularly concerned with the blogs until recently, said Jahabar Siddiq, the editor of Malaysian Insider, because the majority of voters read publications or watched television in their own language. But more recently as many as 1 million overseas Malaysians, most of whom deal in English as the lingua franca, also are internet-savvy and read English.

“In the last year, they have started to look at the English language publications,” Siddiq said. “Most of the new voters are educated overseas. They can’t contain what they read.” The government has made a few feints at attempting to control the internet, including amending the Evidence Act to include internet publications, but has backed away under pressure.

Mahathir himself – who published his widely read blog Che Det on the Internet and played a major role in bringing down Abdullah Badawi, the successor he came to loathe, has also publicly questioned whether Internet freedom is a good thing. But mostly the government has confined itself to going after the sites in a variety of ways instead of closing down the news organizations themselves.

“Unlike Malaysiakini, we have so far not had any direct pressure from the government,” said K. Kabilan, the managing editor of Free Malaysia Today. “We have not had any phone calls asking us to stop any critical writings. However we have had the indirect approach. We have had phone calls from people close to the PM, asking us to tone down our writings.

“We have had UMNO MPs sulking and refusing to talk to us, simply because we have been critical. We have had MIC leaders threatening us with legal suits for articles showing corrupt practices. And we have had big players suing us over articles linking them with corruption. There have been police reports lodged against us over our articles too. Pro-Umno bloggers too at times take swipes at us, trying to discredit us.”

A whole corps of pro-government responders has grown up, eager to post pro-government responses to critical stories. Siddiq says he has friends who are making great money posting such responses to stories that run in Malaysian Insider.

“So many of them now, a few of my friends are making good money writing this stuff – even lawyers. They write really good letters. They’ve been around for about a year.”

He has been called in to give statements to the police, he says, “but there have been no raids on us like on Malaysiakini. I have been hassled by the cops, the securities commission, the laws are stiff on that, they put pressure on our advertisers, who tell us if we write things in a certain way, we won’t get advertising.”

Claire Brown, who publishes the Sarawak Report from London, has made it a particular crusade to bring down Abdul Taib Mahmud the chief minister of the state of Sarawak, who has been accused of taking billions of dollars in kickbacks from timber companies while denuding his state of primary forest.

“The harassment of Malaysiakini is unbelievable and my guess is they will try and bring it to a standstill before the election,” Brown said. “It is stupid, because the information is already out and will go through other portals anyway. As for me, I presented a more awkward proposition being located safely out of their jurisdiction in the UK.”

Taib, she said, has hired public relations flacks in the west to attack and defame her and used a whole variety of other tactics, including threats of lawsuits by Taib’s son-in-law if she didn’t retract the entire body of work she has posted.

“But I guess I have more confidence in the British jury system than he does and ignored it - that was well over a year ago!”

Malaysia slips in Internet freedom; same ranking as Libya

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 2 — Malaysia’s Internet freedom has worsened this year as seen in the latest global survey of 47 countries, putting it on the same level as Libya after Putrajaya introduced new laws seen to curb electronic media use.

Internet freedom for Southeast Asia’s third-biggest economy was judged to be only “partly free”, after it scored 43 out of 100 points — the same as Libya — dropping two notches in the Freedom on the Net 2012: A Global Assessment of Internet and Digital Media report released last week by Freedom House, a US research organisation advocating democracy, political freedom and human rights.

The annual study evaluates each country based on barriers to access, limits on content, and violations of user rights, and traces trends from January 2011 to May 2012. The lower the numerical score, the better the ranking.

Each country is marked on a score from 0 (the most free) to 100 (the least free), which serves as the basis for an Internet freedom status designation of Free (0-30 points), Partly Free (31-60 points), or Not Free (61-100 points).

Malaysia took the 23rd spot, trailing behind the Philippines, South Korea, India and Indonesia among the Asian countries surveyed.

But Malaysia came out ahead of Sri Lanka, Kazakhstan, Thailand, Pakistan, Vietnam, Myanmar and China. Singapore was not included in Freedom House’s global study.

The top five spots in descending order were occupied by Estonia, the United States, Germany, Australia and Hungary, which scored fewer than 20 points out of 100.

The report cited the recent amendments to the Evidence Act 1950, namely Section 114A of the law, which holds the computer or equipment owner liable for seditious content as a very troubling development.

It noted that bloggers and Internet users who were critical of the federal government and royalty have also been subject to arrests, legal harassment, fines and detention — even as it noted such cases had dropped compared to last year.

It also noted the increase in the use of “cybertroopers” deployed by both government and opposition parties to produce either favourable content for themselves or harmful content towards opponents.

It also highlighted the new laws, listing the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act allowing for the interception of communications without a court order in security-related offences, and a broadly worded amendment to the Penal Code criminalising any activity “detrimental to parliamentary democracy” which can be used to criminalise politically sensitive speech.

But Freedom House noted the rise of disproportionate awards for defamation suits filed against bloggers, such as the RM400,000 in damages awarded to the Information, Communications, and Culture Minister, Datuk Seri Rais Yatim.

In other areas, Malaysia’s lack of high-quality infrastructure and the severe digital divide among urban/rural population were cited as major hurdles to access.

But the report acknowledged that the Internet in Malaysia still remains “a relatively unconstrained space for free expression” despite creeping infringements due to an active blogosphere and increasing numbers of active netizens.

Freedom House identified Malaysia as among seven countries, including Russia, that were at risk of suffering greater setbacks to their Internet freedom next year.

“No politically sensitive websites are blocked, and a notorious security law was repealed in early 2012, but other infringements on Internet freedom have emerged in the last year,” Freedom House said in its summary findings.

It noted that news portals and opposition-related websites have been attacked online at “politically critical moments.”

“In the watershed general elections of March 2008, the ruling coalition lost its two-thirds parliamentary majority for the first time since 1969, and the use of the Internet for political mobilisation was widely perceived as contributing to the opposition’s electoral gains.

“As Malaysia prepares for another set of highly contentious elections scheduled to take place by April 2013, greater efforts by the government and ruling party to increase their influence over the Internet are anticipated,” it said.

Jala admits failure to net ‘big fish’ a letdown to Malaysians

Jala said the government’s efforts to fight corruption were not being seen, as the public just “want to hang someone”. — File pic

KUALA LUMPUR, June 4 — Putrajaya has found it toughest to battle public perception of corruption in the country, Datuk Seri Idris Jala has revealed, saying this was because Malaysians want to see “big fish” netted.

Jala, who heads the government’s Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu), told BFM Radio this evening, however, that the fight against corruption was a matter that requires more time before better results can be achieved.

“Corruption is a tough one and the reason is that some of the things that we are doing today in dealing with corruption, we followed what was done in Hong Kong.

“So the lesson learned in Hong Kong is that we build basic building blocks... a bit like building a wall against corruption,” he told the business radio station’s “Talkback Thursday” programme, under its “You are the Government” series.

Jala explained that among the “blocks” put together by the government were the enactment of laws like the Whistleblower Protection Act and the introduction of transparency pacts and special courts for corruption.

But despite this, said Jala, public perception on the state of corruption in Malaysia remains at a low, owing to the lack of public figures being charged and convicted of corruption.

“Most people want the big fish. Now, while you are busy building the blocks... people just want to hang someone.

“But, of course, when that does not come through because the law must apply, then it is very difficult to deal with perception,” he said.

When asked by the show’s host, Ezra Zaid, if he felt that the failure to nab the “big fish” had caused disappointment among Malaysians, Jala agreed.

“It’s a disappointment. Most people think we have not caught any big fish. Nonetheless, when you at the Corruption Perception Index (CPI), we have slipped by one point from 4.4 to 4.3,” he said.

However, Jala said the slide could have been due to a new measure in the survey introduced by Transparency International, namely the “bribe payer index”.

“In this survey, they interviewed 28 countries... and this is to look at the propensity of Malaysians [to pay bribes] when they are outside the country.

“Apparently, we bribe when we are outside the country and our score on that was 2.7,” he said.

Jala also announced during the talk show that the government has achieved 60 per cent of its key performance indicators for its National Key Result Areas in the first five months of this year.

He said Pemandu was presently running eight simultaneous laboratories at present to prepare itself towards moving into the second phase of the Government Transformation Programme for the years 2013, 2014 and 2015.

Grave repercussions for internet users

LoyarBurok
by Foong Cheng Leong

As published in LoyarBurok on 24 Apr 2012

Dissecting the presumption of fact relating to publication in the controversial new Bill.

The Evidence (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2012 was one of the bills rushed and passed by the Parliament recently. Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Aziz, when winding up the Evidence (Amendment) Bill 2012, said the use of pseudonyms or anonymity by any party to do cyber crimes had made it difficult for the action to be taken against them. Hence, the Evidence Act 1950 must be amended to address the issue of Internet anonymity.

The amendments introduced s. 114A into the Evidence Act 1950 to provide for the presumption of fact in publication in order to facilitate the identification and proving of the identity of an anonymous person involved in publication through the internet. In simple words, s. 114A introduces 3 circumstances where an Internet user is deemed to be a publisher of a content unless proven otherwise by him or her.

Although it is stated that the amendment is to cover anonymous persons on the internet, the effect of the amendment is quite wide. You see, we, especially social media network users, generally do not use our real names on the Internet. We use nicknames and pseudonyms. Our home addresses do not appear on our account. We sometimes use fictional characters or even digitalized images of ourselves as our profile picture. All these are done to protect our own privacy. So, if none of my personal details appear on my account, does this mean I am anonymous? If someone’s identity cannot be directly ascertained from his account, I would think that he would be anonymous.

The new s. 114A(1) states that “A person whose name, photograph or pseudonym appears on any publication depicting himself as the owner, host , administrator, editor or sub-editor, or who in any manner facilitates to publish or re-publish the publication is presumed to have published or re-published the contents of the publication unless the contrary is proved”. In simple words, if your name, photograph or pseudonym appears on any publication depicting yourself as the aforesaid persons, you are deemed to have published the content. So, for example, if someone creates a blog with your name, you are deemed to have published the articles there unless you prove otherwise. If you have a blog and someone posts a comment, you are deemed to have published it. If you have a Facebook page and an user posts something on your wall, you are deemed to have published it!

Subsection (2) provides a graver consequence. If a posting originates from your account with a network service provider, you are deemed to be the publisher unless the contrary is proved. In simple terms, if a posting originates from your TM Unifi account, you are deemed to be the publisher. In the following scenarios, you are deemed to be the publisher unless you prove the contrary:-

(1) You have a home network with a few house mates sharing one internet account. You are deemed to be the publisher even though one of your house mates posts something offensive online.

(2) You have wireless network at home but you did not secure your network. You are deemed to be the publisher even though someone “piggybacks” your network to post something offensive.

(3) You have a party at home and allows your friends to access your PC or wireless network.You are deemed to be the publisher even though it was a friend who posted something offensive.

(4) Someone use your phone or tablet to post something offensive. You are deemed to be the publisher.

As for subsection (3), you are presumed to have published a content if you have custory or control of any computer which the publication originates from. Here, you are deemed to be the publisher so long your computer was the device that had posted the content. So if someone “tweetjacks” you or naughtily updates your Facebook with something offensive, you are deemed to be the publisher unless you prove otherwise.

Admittedly, the amendments certainly saves a lot of the investigator’s time. It is very difficult to trace someone on the Internet. It will make prosecution for, among others, defamation, offences under the Communication and Multimedia Act 1998 and Computer Crimes Act 1997 and, election offences much easier. But it is not impossible to trace someone. There are many cases where perpetrators are caught and charged.

I do not see the logic to deem someone to be a publisher. If an investigator is unable to trace the anonymous internet user, then why should the innocent Internet user take the rap? The onus of proof should always be on the prosecuting side. In the English case of Applause Store Productions Limited & Anor v Grant Raphael [2008] EWHC 1781 (QB), the claimants were awarded £22,000 in damages against Raphael, an old school friend, who had created a false personal profile of the claimants on Facebook. The claimants convinced the Court that Raphael was the person who created the fake profile even though he claimed that he had a party at his house and someone in that party created the account.

In summary, the new amendments force an innocent party to show that he is not the publisher. Victims of stolen identity or hacking would have a lot more problems to fix. Since computers can be easily manipulated and identity theft is quite rampant, it is dangerous to put the onus on internet users. An internet user will need to give an alibi that it wasn’t him. He needs to prove that he has no access to the computer at that time of publication and he needs to produce call witnesses to support his alibi.

Clearly, it is against our very fundamental principal of “innocent until proven guilty”. With general election looming, I fear this amendment will be used oppressively. Fortunately, the amendment is not in force yet. I strongly hope that the government will relook into this amendment.

Internet's net result on election results

HUB OF DISCOURSE: Will the Internet make as big an impact in the next general election as it did the last time? Arman Ahmad speaks to three experts

However, Azizuddin said: "Traditional media still has a significant impact in influencing people's voting trend in the general election, especially for rural folk who have less access to the new media."

Arman Ahmad, New Straits Times

AS the 13th general election draws closer, the battle for the hearts and minds of voters is heating up. The ruling party and opposition blogs and websites are abuzz with activity, working hard at spreading their ideas.

The Internet is widely credited for the opposition's gains during the last general election. This time around, however, both sides seem equally matched in terms of online presence.

But how far will the Internet affect the outcome of the next election?

Experts said what people saw and read on the Internet would influence their opinions. However, they added, people would still vote based on other factors.

"People don't vote based on what they read on the Internet," said Julian Hopkins, communications lecturer at Monash University. Instead, he said, people voted based on what they experienced in life.

The election results will be mostly influenced by what people think about the government, and the direction the country is going.

Issues about corruption, inequality and trust in the government are determining factors.

People vote, firstly, based on what they experience, and secondly, on what they read.

However, Hopkins said, the Internet could reinforce voters' perception formed from experiences.

"The Internet may help amplify their feelings."

This sentiment was echoed by Dr Abubakar Eby Hara, senior lecturer at the School of International Studies, College of Law, Government and International studies, at Universiti Utara Malaysia.

He said the Internet was not a game- changer in politics.

"It is only a medium to promote change or maintain the status quo."

Hopkins said this time around, blogs would be less influential as social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, had become more prominent.

"People see their friends talk about the same issue, for example, (the) Bersih (gathering).

"People will link videos (of the event) to their friends. They talk there and they can see other people's opinions.

"They have an information source and discussion there."

These sites have become the hub of social discourse and opinion, and are powerful mediums for change.

"By referring to the Arab Spring, the Internet has transformed people's perceptions and opinions quickly," said Dr Mohd Azizuddin Mohd Sani, dean of International Studies at Universiti Utara Malaysia.

"It is the same all over the world. The Internet is trendy; cheap, sometimes free; available; and easy to access.

"Actually, the technology of smartphones has transformed global society. Access to information becomes crucial and easy.

"(French philosopher) Michel Foucault says knowledge is power. For me, information is power, nowadays."

He said the Internet was becoming a tool for democratisation.

"Everywhere, including China, the Internet is seen as the tool for democratisation, even though the reality is that it can also create anarchy and can be dangerous for national security if a state depends too much on information technology."

Today, politicians are more Internet savvy than ever before, and the Internet has become a prerequisite for many aspiring politicians to reach their audience.

Azizuddin said United States President Barack Obama was the best example of a leader who engaged people via the Internet.

"In fact, he garnered support and funds via the Internet for his 2008 election. The same approach was taken by the Malaysian opposition to reach out to youths and urbanites during the last general election."

Closer to home, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has a strong online presence as well.

Abubakar said Najib had became more liked because of his online presence, and his efforts to engage people via Twitter and Facebook had shown results.

"It is a good effort to inform people about his programmes and I think it is effective and he is popular."

Azizuddin said it would be great if Najib could have an online debate with his supporters and critics, similar to US presidential debates.

Hopkins said under Najib's leadership, the government had tried to increase its voice online through direct and indirect means.

The New Media Unit of Umno Youth said it had trained more than 1,800 people in the use of social media.

However, Hopkins said they should not overestimate results.

However, Azizuddin said: "Traditional media still has a significant impact in influencing people's voting trend in the general election, especially for rural folk who have less access to the new media."

He added that traditional media would survive and would continue to be the source of information for people.

He said traditional or mainstream media should adopt a new approach in terms of reporting and editing to stay relevant.

"The issue is about credibility. Malaysians now are mature and intelligent enough to analyse news."

The plus point for new media, he said, was that news on the Internet was convenient and easy to access.

"It is not so much about balanced news reporting but also about access to a variety of news and information.

"The Internet or new media has opened the public sphere for people to get, spread and debate the information.

"All this information will influence their decision on which party they will vote, for instance."

Abubakar said while the traditional media was important, it had become less important in the face of news that could be obtained via the Internet.

He said people also used the Internet to compare news.

Hopkins said what was most important was that people should get unbiased stories from both sides and decide for themselves.

Abubakar said people often said Malaysians were immature and did not understand (what was in their best interest).

"That is just a way to dismiss expectations.

"Malaysians are just as able as anyone else to understand what is in their best interest."

"They have very high online presence on Facebook and Twitter. They are educated and have good access to the Internet."

We’ll educate social media users, says Rais

The government prefers to educate its citizens to be more responsible about what they post online.

KUALA LUMPUR: It is impossible to monitor all the information on Facebook, Twitter, blogs and various other new internet mediums, especially so with an estimated 12 million users in the country, said Information, Communications and Culture Minister Rais Yatim.

“It should not be monitored and no one can monitor Facebook or Twitter as the number of users are too big. No one can monitor 12 million users for example,” he said to Bernama after the launch of the 1Malaysia Social Media Convention by Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak here, today.

Instead, the government hoped that the network users would become more responsible through the education they receive periodically on the matter, he emphasised.

He noted that, even in the United States, a debate has started as to whether the role of social media should be monitored, but the Malaysian government preferred to educate its citizens to be more responsible about what they post on these sites.

However, not everything on social media networks is bad, as it has certain aspects which can raise the standard of living, he added.

“For example, the Prime Minister has suggested that Barisan Nasional leaders who are internet savvy should use the social media in their careers,” he said.

More than 2,000 social media users, particularly pro government bloggers attended the one day convention.

Greater Smartphone & Tablet PC Use To Drive 350 Per Cent Rise In Global Hotspots

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 9 (Bernama) -- Public Wi-Fi hotspots are set to grow by 350 per cent from 1.3 million around the world today to 5.8 million by 2015 following greater use of smartphones and tablet PCs, said the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA).

WBA, which focuses on driving the next generation Wi-Fi experience, said mobile data growth was a key factor in the rapid build-out of Wi-Fi hotspots.

This forecast does not include "community hotspots", where users share their own Wi-Fi access point with others, which add an additional 4.5 million hotspots worldwide, said the industry association in a report compiled by analyst firm Informa Telecoms & Media from a survey of 259 service providers and Wi-Fi vendors.

The survey found that smartphone connections to Wi-Fi hotspots will soon overtake laptops globally.

Laptops now represent less than half (48 per cent) of the connections to hotspots, smartphones account for 36 per cent and tablets 10 per cent.

In the Asia Pacific and North America, smartphones already outnumber laptop connections to hotspots.

WBA's report also highlighted that global mobile data traffic was expected to reach 16.84 million terabytes by 2014.

"Operators plan to manage the impact of this growth primarily through new pricing strategies and Wi-Fi-based offload," it said.

WBA said China Mobile planned to deploy a million hotspots and Japan''s KDDI aimed to grow its 10,000 Wi-FI hotspots to 100,000 within six months.

The survey found that that this growth will be concentrated in three types of location: wide-area outdoor hotzones like parks, local-area outdoor hotzones or popular tourist attractions and transport hubs like airports.

The findings also showed that 58 per cent of operators, including 47 per cent of mobile operators, believed that Wi-Fi hotspots were either very important or crucial to their customers' experience, offload busy mobile broadband networks and provide a value-added services platform.

The report also cited several barriers to adoption and use of public Wi-Fi hotspots. They include cumbersome authentication procedures, costs of access, user discovery of available networks and security.

For instance, one UK operator recently reported that only 20 per cent of its users access the free public hotspots available to them.

However, the WBA report said several challenges would be overcome by Next Generation Hotspots (NGH), which are currently undergoing trials internationally.

NGH allow users to seamlessly roam between cellular and Wi-Fi networks using their mobile handset's SIM card as authentication, reducing concerns about authentication, network discovery and security.

Operators are also reducing the cost of access by increasingly offering public Wi-Fi as part of broadband or cellular packages.

Chris Bruce, Chair of the WBA and Chief Executive Officer, BT Openzone, said,"The findings show we are about to enter the golden age of public Wi-Fi with hotspot deployments set to soar."

Clampdown on internet, public transport?

Bersih 2.0 says it has received reports of a possible full or partial clampdown on public services on Saturday. Not true, says the IGP.

UPDATED

PETALING JAYA: Bersih 2.0 has registered alarm over the possibility of a full or partial clampdown on the internet, telecommunication services and public transportation on Saturday.

Citing intelligence feedback, the coalition warned the government against aping the Middle Eastern dictators in a futile attempt to thwart its rally at Stadium Merdeka.

In a statement today, Bersih 2.0′s steering committtee said such measures would not dampen its resolve.

“Bersih 2.0 reiterates in no uncertain terms that any repression, intimidation and obstacles will not for an instant dilute our resolve to gather peacefully at Stadium Merdeka at 2pm, after which we will disperse just as peacefully.”

“Should any of the above repressive measures come into effect, Malaysians and the international community will witness for themselves the desperate and unwarranted extremes to which the government is willing to go to prevent clean and fair elections.

“The government will also be unequivocally and fully responsible for the loss of business, the loss of confidence within the investment community and the complete loss of goodwill towards Malaysia’s political and commercial standing.”

Earlier today, Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) chairman Syed Hamid Albar confirmed that Putrajaya had given a directive to freeze all temporary bus permits to Kuala Lumpur.

The former home minister justified the move on the basis that there were no festival occassions going on nor was it the school holidays.

Based on the recent developments, Bersih 2.0 expected the government to pull the plug on the Internet and telecommunication services as well.

“Bersih 2.0 warns the government that should access to mobile phone networks, the Internet, mobile 3G services, specific websites or social media be compromised in any way whatsoever, then the authorities will look absolutely no different from the Middle Eastern dictators who have used the same measures with no success whatsoever.”

The coalition also urged members of the public who wanted to join the rally to enter the city centre by today or tomorrow.

“Intelligence suggests that public transport will be shut down, either partially or fully on Friday and/or Saturday. Observing the shocking fact that bus permits to Kuala Lumpur have already been frozen, plans seem to be well in place to make entering Kuala Lumpur on July 9 as difficult as humanly possible.”

IGP brushes off rumours, issues warning

Inspector-General of Police Ismail Omar however brushed aside the loose talk of any imminent internet and public transport clampdown.

He urged the public not to pay any heed to these rumours.

“Who is spreading such rumours? Don’t waste time with these. Those who spread these news to discredit the authorities, if I catch them, well, we’ll take action,” he said.

“Call your nearest station or your state chief of police if you hear something like that. Check,” he said.
Ismail also denied that police will attempt to restrict traffic into the city. He however said that police personnel will “regulate traffic” and will keep a lookout for dangerous elements.

Hackers make good on threat to cripple govt websites

As many as 51 sites could have been hacked in retaliation against a government decision to block file-sharing sites.

UPDATED

PETALING JAYA: At least 41 Malaysian government websites were hacked into overnight but no personal or financial data were compromised, government officials said on Thursday, as the Southeast nation becomes the latest target of a cyber-war waged by the activists.

In the attacks, 51 websites were hit and at least 41 of these sites were disrupted, industry regulator Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) said.

“Our monitoring of the situation showed that there was a reduced level of attacks by 4am this morning and upon further evaluation, so far, we gauge that there has been little impact on Malaysian users as a result,” the communications commission said in a statement.
MCMC also said that most of the affected websites have recovered.

Malaysian police chief Ismail Omar meanwhile told Reuters no personal or financial data had so far been stolen but the authorities were trying to determine the extent of the attacks.

Top of the hacked list was www.malaysia.gov.my. The attacks were launched last night, one day ahead of their threat to carry out the cyber onslaught.

The other sites hacked into belonged to the Information Ministry (kpkk.gov.my), the Fire and Emergency Services Department (bomba.gov.my), the Land Public Transport Commission (spad.gov.my), and Parliament (www.parlimen.gov.my).

Other related agencies sites which are down are Sabah Tourism (www.sabahtourism.com) and Construction Industry Development Board (www.cidb.gov.my).

It also included Asean Connect, Treasury, Jobs Malaysia, and National Sports Council among others. All the sites, except CIDB, are completely inaccessible.

These sites are allegedly experiencing DDoS (Distributed Denial-of-Service) attacks or switched off by website administrator.

Anonymous’ attacks come as a reaction to Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission’s decision to block 10 file sharing sites last week.

Anonymous sent a hack threat note on June 14 with details on the times of the web attacks.

Information Communications and Culture Minister Rais Yatim told the media the following day that the government was prepared to face the cyber attacks.

He also said the hackers ‘had got the wrong end of the stick’.

“They have misunderstood the government’s good intentions. There is no cyber censorship in Malaysia unless crimes have been committed,” Rais was quoted as saying.

Sabah Tourism Board warned

Meanwhile, in KOTA KINABALU, the hackers had listed 392 accounts taken from the Sabah Tourism Board website.

They posted this on a website http://pastehtml.com/view/ax3mejiup.html#more, where the group revealed that they had access to 3,456 more accounts.

The list included the details of those with access such as emails, passwords, usernames, first names and last names of those who were stored in the database.

The group had indicated that they had not done any harm to the database.

But they did issue Sabah Tourism Board a warning which read “PEACE NO HARM WAS DONE. To sabahtourism.com Please fix the exploit.”

The posting continues to state: “We are anonymous, We are Legion, We do not forgive, We do not forget. Expect us. WE LOVE MALAYSIA”.

Meanwhile FMT contacted one of those whose details were revealed on the website but she said that it was an old email from a previous place of employment.

She said that she had not receive any suspicious emails following the attack and had not used that email address for five years.

Ban wi-fi, mobile phones in schools: European body

Mobile phones and computers with wi-fi connections pose a risk to health and should be banned from schools, a committee of the influential Council of Europe has asserted.
The committee had examined evidence that the technologies have “potentially harmful” effects on humans, and concluded that immediate action was required to protect children.
See reports from the Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail.
This is an extract from the resolution adopted by the Committee on the Environment, Agriculture and Local and Regional Affairs of the Council of Europe:

4. While electrical and electromagnetic fields in certain frequency bands have wholly beneficial effects which are applied in medicine, other non-ionising frequencies, be they sourced from extremely low frequencies, power lines or certain high frequency waves used in the fields of radar, telecommunications and mobile telephony, appear to have more or less potentially harmful, non-thermal, biological effects on plants, insects and animals as well as the human body even when exposed to levels that are below the official threshold values.
5. As regards standards or threshold values for emissions of electromagnetic fields of all types and frequencies, the Assembly recommends that the ALARA or “as low as reasonably achievable” principle is applied, covering both the so-called thermal effects and the athermic or biological effects of electromagnetic emissions or radiation. Moreover, the precautionary principle should be applicable when scientific evaluation does not allow the risk to be determined with sufficient certainty, especially given the context of growing exposure of the population, including particularly vulnerable groups such as young people and children, which could lead to extremely high human and economic costs of inaction if early warnings are neglected.
6. The Assembly regrets that, despite calls for the respect of the precautionary principle and despite all the recommendations, declarations and a number of statutory and legislative advances, there is still a lack of reaction to known or emerging environmental and health risks and virtually systematic delays in adopting and implementing effective preventive measures. Waiting for high levels of scientific and clinical proof before taking action to prevent well-known risks can lead to very high health and economic costs, as was the case with asbestos, leaded petrol and tobacco.
7. Moreover, the Assembly notes that the problem of electromagnetic fields or waves and the potential consequences for the environment and health has clear parallels with other current issues, such as the licensing of medication, chemicals, pesticides, heavy metals or genetically modified organisms. It therefore highlights that the issue of independence and credibility of scientific expertise is crucial to accomplish a transparent and balanced assessment of potential negative impacts on the environment and human health.
8. In light of the above considerations, the Assembly recommends that the member states of the Council of Europe:
8.1. in general terms:
8.1.1. take all reasonable measures to reduce exposure to electromagnetic fields, especially to radio frequencies from mobile phones, and particularly the exposure to children and young people who seem to be most at risk from head tumours;
8.1.2. reconsider the scientific basis for the present electromagnetic fields exposure standards set by the International Commission on Non-Ionising Radiation Protection, which have serious limitations and apply “as low as reasonably achievable” (ALARA) principles, covering both thermal effects and the athermic or biological effects of electromagnetic emissions or radiation;
8.1.3. put in place information and awareness-raising campaigns on the risks of potentially harmful long-term biological effects on the environment and on human health, especially targeting children, teenagers and young people of reproductive age;
8.1.4. pay particular attention to “electrosensitive” persons suffering from a syndrome of intolerance to electromagnetic fields and introduce special measures to protect them, including the creation of wave-free areas not covered by the wireless network;
8.1.5. in order to reduce costs, save energy, and protect the environment and human health, step up research on new types of antennas and mobile phone and DECT-type devices, and encourage research to develop telecommunication based on other technologies which are just as efficient but have less negative effects on the environment and health;
8.2. concerning the private use of mobile phones, DECT phones, WiFi, WLAN and WIMAX for computers and other wireless devices such as baby phones:
8.2.1. set preventive thresholds for levels of long-term exposure to microwaves in all indoor areas, in accordance with the precautionary principle, not exceeding 0.6 volts per metre, and in the medium term to reduce it to 0.2 volts per metre;
8.2.2. undertake appropriate risk-assessment procedures for all new types of device prior to licensing;
8.2.3. introduce clear labelling indicating the presence of microwaves or electromagnetic fields, the transmitting power or the specific absorption rate (SAR) of the device and any health risks connected with its use;
8.2.4. raise awareness on potential health risks of DECT-type wireless telephones, baby monitors and other domestic appliances which emit continuous pulse waves, if all electrical equipment is left permanently on standby, and recommend the use of wired, fixed telephones at home or, failing that, models which do not permanently emit pulse waves;
8.3. concerning the protection of children:
8.3.1. develop within different ministries (education, environment and health) targeted information campaigns aimed at teachers, parents and children to alert them to the specific risks of early, ill-considered and prolonged use of mobiles and other devices emitting microwaves;
8.3.2. ban all mobile phones, DECT phones or WiFi or WLAN systems from classrooms and schools, as advocated by some regional authorities, medical associations and civil society organisations;
8.4. concerning the planning of electric power lines and relay antenna base stations:
8.4.1. introduce town planning measures to keep high-voltage power lines and other electric installations at a safe distance from dwellings;
8.4.2. apply strict safety standards for sound electric systems in new dwellings;
8.4.3. reduce threshold values for relay antennas in accordance with the ALARA principle and install systems for comprehensive and continuous monitoring of all antennas;
8.4.4. determine the sites of any new GSM, UMTS, WiFi or WIMAX antennas not solely according to the operators’ interests but in consultation with local and regional government officials, local residents and associations of concerned citizens;

No Internet censorship, says Najib

No Internet censorship. Is this really true?
Najib at the ‘Blogging Mindfully and Responsibly’ conference:

Malaysians have to thank Tun Dr Mahathir again for this. When he was prime minister and Malaysia was developing its Multimedia Super Corridor, Tun made the promise to the world that Malaysia would never censor the Internet.
My government is fully committed to that wisdom; we intend to keep his word.

So what happened to Malaysiakini and Sarawak Report in the run-up to the Sarawak polls?