Nevertheless, all this depends on proving defamation and seeking the identity of the blogger which can be an enormous task as a result of anonymity of the Internet and its worldwide scope.
An additional legal risk is when blogs are utilized to disseminate false, unfinished or misleading information regarding racial disturbances or items that cause hatred or contempt towards the government or the leader. In Malaysia, various offences are provided for in the Sedition Act 1948 such as it is an offence for any person to print, distribute or distribute any seditious publication- see Section 4 with the Sedition Act, 1948 for other offences. Whether the provisions in the Act apply to publications online have not been judicially confirmed.
In Singapore the sedition law was applied in 2005 in which the Singapore court jailed a pair of users for posting seditious remarks relating to the Internet- Two jailed with regard to 'sedition' on internet, South China Morning Post, Weekend, November 8, 2005. Your South China Morning Post reported that this case is considered some sort of landmark case underscoring the government's attempts to modify online expression and unravel down on racial intolerance. The 2 main cases represented the first time Singaporeans had been prosecuted together with convicted for racist phrase under its Sedition Act.
Due to the case of your racist bloggers, with 8 November 2006 the Singapore Government proposed modifications to its Penal Code taking into account the impact of technology such as the Internet and mobile phones- consult Singapore Ministry of Property Affairs, Consultation Paper on the Proposed Penal Code Efficiencies at page 2. Your amendments cover offences committed via electronic medium such as Section 298 (uttering key phrases, or anything else with deliberate intent to help wound the religious feelings of anybody) to cover the wounding of racial feelings additionally, Department 499 (defamation) and Section 505 (arguments conducing to public mischief) to expand and include those "published in published, digital or other media" see Singapore Penal Code (Change) Bill at internet pages 8 and 20. These kind of amendments when passed empower the police and state prosecutors to prosecute those with offending blogs- Cf. Solar panels 298, 499 and 505 of the Malaysian Penal Code (Revised 1997).
There are actually reasons why the experts are taking blogging seriously as share of the people that took part inside Blogging Asia: Some sort of Windows Live Report survey feel that blog contents are as trustworthy as traditional media and then a quarter of the respondents believe blogs to be the quickest way to educate yourself about news and current affairs.
Using such reliance on blogs, contents containing false, unfinished or misleading information posted on blogs but not only may cause panic, rage, contempt or political scandals; it may also cause political and economic instability.
The internet presents challenges to existing laws which were slow to provide acceptable protection to a party based on the use and content associated with blogs. Now, codes of practice for Internet surfers including bloggers have not been proposed as part of the Internet regulatory regime currently operating in Malaysia.
Instead, bloggers need to practise self-regulation and know the legal implications of blogging to ensure that their blogs are written within a responsible and lawful process. In order to protect themselves, bloggers may provide terms of use and proper disclaimer to offer some degree of comfort and protection from third parties postings on their blogs.
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