banning and/or controlling blogs

first we have this….

(picture from malaysiakini)

… a letter from the gomen itself requesting newspaper not to quote or refer to online websites or blogs.

then in came the zam zam guy, the minister of misinformation who said….

(picture taken from a commenter in susan loone’s blog)

yeah, he was only ‘parotting’  what the letter had directed – don’t quote websites… but look, like the minister of worrisome… er… tourism, who gave bloggers names like liars, cheats, rumours mongers and national unity haters, he too gave a string of names to us bloggers – frustrated journalists, political pundits, anarchist websites…

and more! from bernama…the heading mentioned blog!

The minister said he was disappointed as there were blog websites that have not been updated and carried inaccurate information, causing uneasiness and confusion to people surfing the websites.

"The information are posted on the blogs by people with no authority. Why you as journalists have to quote a blog website as the source of your story and then publish the news in the newspaper that has authority?" he asked.

"The information posted on the blog website may be something provocative, politically motivated, inaccurate and are mostly rumours floated for the interests of certain parties," he said.

"You (journalists) should not allow your readers to believe blog websites as a reliable source," he said when commenting on the trend among newspapers to attribute blog websites as the source, hence indirectly promoting them.

Zainuddin advised readers suspicious of the information posted on blog websites to refer to the mainstream media to get the true picture.

go on and read further! there was even a mention of banning and controlling blogs, i tell you! oh and a barisan nasional BN) rep had chipped in to say the same law should apply to bloggers… again using the ‘R’ word – that we bloggers must be responsible.

btw, howsy also has an interesting picture of this zam-zam guy as the blog demonizer and hypocrite.