SE Asian bloggers fear govt reprisal

SE Asian bloggers fear govt reprisal

Sean Yoong, Associated Press/Kuala Lumpur

Bloggers, beware. Big Brother is watching.

The recent arrest of three Singaporeans accused of making
racial slurs on Internet message boards has sparked concerns of a
cyberspace crackdown by authorities in Singapore and neighboring
Malaysia, where strict laws suppress outspokenness.

Web logs, or blogs, a global online phenomenon, are seen as
the high-tech equivalent of personal diaries, but they've also
become a public forum for free speech in Singapore and Malaysia,
where the media are tightly controlled and provocative views are
rarely heard.

Now, bloggers in both countries fear they'll have to watch
their words, following the arrest of Benjamin Koh Song Huat, 27,
and Nicholas Lim Yew, 25, in Singapore on Sept. 12 for allegedly
posting comments insulting the country's Muslim Malay minority. A
third Singaporean, a 17-year-old, was charged separately on Sept.
16, the Singapore Straits Times reported but did not identify
him.

Charged with sedition, all three face prison terms of up to
three years if convicted.

While some bloggers say they deserve little sympathy because
their remarks were repugnant, the case has triggered concern that
Singapore's government might be tightening social controls.

"A part of me is fairly exultant at the fact that two people
who ... made extremely racist comments are being punished," wrote
blogger MercerMachine. "The other part of me is sick at the fact
that there isn't even a pretense of free speech now."

Koh and Lim are the first bloggers to be arrested and charged
in Singapore.

In May, Chen Jiahao, a Singaporean studying in the United
States, was threatened with a lawsuit for allegedly defamatory
criticism about Singapore's scholarship policies. Chen was spared
after he apologized and closed down his personal Web site.

International press freedom group Reporters Without Borders
decried the lawsuit as "intimidation" that "could make the
country's blogs as timid and obedient as the traditional media."

The racial element to the blogs was bound to raise hackles in
Singapore, where ethnic Chinese comprise 80 percent of the city-
state's 4.2 million populace, with Malays making up around 15
percent and ethnic Indians some 5 percent.

Neighboring Malaysia has a similarly delicate ethnic mix among
its 25 million people, with nearly 60 percent Malays, 25 percent
Chinese, 10 percent Indians and a remainder of other races.

Both nations pride themselves on racial harmony and rank among
Southeast Asia's most peaceful places, but critics say the
apparent racial order is forced by their governments, using tough
laws such as the one that hit the bloggers.

In Malaysia, laws provide for maximum one-year prison
sentences for Web users who post false, indecent or offensive
material. "The online environment is not a legal vacuum," warns
the Communications and Multimedia Content Code, which came into
force last year. "In general, if something is illegal off-line,
it will also be illegal online."

Malaysian bloggers have faced no legal repercussions so far,
but many have been worried since the government threatened one
popular Web writer with jail after a racially provocative comment
was posted on his Web site. Jeff Ooi was warned that he could be
jailed under a security law that allows imprisonment without
trial if he was found to be encouraging debate on contentious
issues after a reader published a comment that offended Muslims.