cyber patrol coming soon!

whoa! is this good news or bad news?

i’m talking about the ‘cyber media unit‘ to be set up by the information ministry soon.

The Information Ministry is to set up a cyber media section soon to counter misinformation on government policies posted on the Internet by irresponsible people and to disseminate the correct information to the public.

Deputy Information Minister Datuk Seri Chia Kwang Chye said today the move was mooted in view of the growing importance of the Internet as a powerful communication tool and especially in the wake of the technology being abused by some quarters to spread misinformation on subjects of national interest.

"This special unit will be purely working to disseminate information, explain correct information and counter the misinformation on government policies for the general public.

"We are in the midst of finalising the administrative part and it will come into effect very soon," he told reporters after witnessing the signing of a Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) between Open University Malaysia (OUM) and the Asian Institute for Communication Development (Aidcom) to offer a Development Communication Diploma Programme for working adults, at OUM here.

Chia said the unit would also work to rectify misinformation posted against national interest both in local and international registered domains.

He added, however, that the unit would have no power to take action against the irresponsible bloggers. "Our role is not to take action against them but rather to give the general public the correct and better information through the Internet," he said.

notice how it started off innocently by mentioning ‘people’ then right to the end, it only mentioned ‘bloggers’!! er… irresponsible bloggers, mind you.

ahh i see. so this has to do with the recent attacks on bloggers.  the gomen believed that bloggers like to spread negative and malicious contents, are a threat to national security, are liars, cheats, rumour mongers, so i guess it is about time they have to do something – by setting up this cyber media unit… to patrol blogs? then how are they going to ‘correct’ the bloggers? by posting comments? start a blog of their own where they counter all misinformation from bloggers?

well, hopefully they would do that so that they will not resort to calling bloggers names! at least they listened to wong chun wai to embrace bloggers. that’s right. embrace and engage – the theme for our gathering on 19 may. have you signed up already? quick do so as we promise an evening you’ll never forget. hey, maybe this new team of the cyber media unit might be present… you know lah… to monitor if we talk ‘rubbish’. heh. they are most welcome!