defamation suit against bloggers

ok so by now it is all over the blogosphere. many had blog on it – this big news of socio-political bloggers jeff ooi and rocky bru (picture left, taken from malaysiakini) being sued by NST. so what i’m going to do is first a brief input on what i think of this issue, and then to give you links on some prominent blogs that highlighted on other blogs that blogs on this issue.

first of all i must say that as bloggers, we should be allowed to say what we like (voice our opinion without fear or favour) but then again we must remind ourselves that there is no such thing as absolute freedom of speech. if you write something someone find that is untrue of him/her, he/she has a right to sue you. so question here is do you stand by what you had written as the truth and nothing but the truth? if yes, then you have nothing to worry about of the suit.

in this instance of jeff and rocky, most of us are behind them as knowing NST to be a pro-government paper, it is no surprise that they detest out-spoken socio-political bloggers who spoke up against the government.

we are also disturbed by the suit because we fear this as a start to clamp-down on bloggers. will this made bloggers more cautious of what they blog on? well some will of course but the thing is hopefully this won’t stop them from being out-spoken and provide us with news or views that we can’t find in the mainstream media.

well as a socio-political blogger myself, how do i feel? well i’m only a teeny weeny small fry blogger (not femes blogger, see), so big brother won’t be watching me i’m sure. however i guess maybe for the moment, i need to be cautious and not blog on serious stuff to do with the gomen… or some big time corporation or media!

ok now about the links i mentioned earlier.
well first, from the horses’ mouth… i mean jeff and rocky of course.

from rocky:
bloggers sued in malaysia

from jeff:
bloggers sued in malaysia
bloggers sued in malaysia (2) – this one contain links of international media that spotlight on this issue.

from lim kit siang:
jeff ooi / rocky bru sued – the far-reaching implications

research on malaysian bloggers:
bloggers sued – a chronology of events – as the tittle suggests, post on events leading to the suit.

leave bloggers in malaysia alone! – a compilation of all (well almost) bloggers who blog on this issue.

malaysiakini:
bloggers sued for defamation