Bloggophobia in Kuala Lumpur… why?
Ever since Rocky and Jeff Ooi had been served with defamation suit by NST and four others, bloggers had been very much the talk of the town. It first started with the issue of bloggers being sued itself. Shortly after that Nila Tanzil had blogged about how she received shoddy treatment from Malaysian Tourism Board officials in Kuala Lumpur. But the issues surrounding her complaint were not really hot in the blogosphere.
Instead, thanks to Tengku Adnan’s, Malaysia’s Tourism Minister, calling all bloggers are liar, (read More Liars by Nuraina) referring to the blog post by Nila Tanzil. The un-called for comments had caused major havoc over the blogosphere. Still hot from the sense unity among bloggers due to highly successful Bloggers United campaign, countless bloggers joined the club in condemning Tengku Adnan’s remark. Bloggers were the talk of the town once again.
Now, not only Tengku Adnan who does not believe what bloggers write. Zainuddin Maidin, Malaysian Information Minister, also issued a statement to Bernama, asking mainstream newspapers not to quote from blogs when reporting stories as the source of information is considered not authoritative.
“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.
In the meantime, the Malaysian Government issued an official directive to all Malaysian newspapers not to quote stories from blogs as that would make some issue too sensational and attracted too much public attention.
The one-million-dollar question I have is : Why the bloggophobia in Kuala Lumpur? Anyone?
(I think I have just coined a new term: bloggophobia )
[tags]bloggers are liar, Zainuddin Maidin, Tengku Adnan, Nila Tanzil, Rocky, Jeff Ooi, bloggophobia, defamation suit[/tags]
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[...] Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. CJCM is frustrated. He says there is Blogophobia in Kuala Lumpur….why? Just as in the US and other parts of the world, there are questions about the credibility of bloggers as news sources. CJCM says, “Bloggers, their influence and credibility, continue to be the talk of the town in Kuala Lumpur. Authorities in Malaysia [officially] instructed the main stream medias, which are government controlled, not to quote bloggers in their news.” Find out more at Kuala Lumpur is Home. [...]
[...] Blogophobia in Kuala Lumpur continues today with a new twist. Bloggers are so prominent these days in Malaysia that not only a Malaysian ministry had issue a gag order to national mainstream newspapers not to quote bloggers, one Malaysian Parlimentarian had suggested in today’s Parliment proceeding that Malaysian bloggers may have to register in the future. [...]
[...] Thanks to NST and the four individuals that started the defamation suit against Jeff Ooi and Ahiruddin Attan aka Rocky. Thanks also to Tengku Adnan for calling Malaysian bloggers are liars over Nila Tanzil’s revelation of her experience with Malaysia Tourism Board. Thank you so much to Kementerian Dalam Negeri (Internal Affair Ministry)for issuing directive to mainstream medias not to quote bloggers in their reportings. And the latest thank you is to none other than Shaziman Abu Mansor , the Deputy Minister at the Ministry of Energy, Water and Commnication, for bringing up in the Parliment seating, the idea of registering Malaysian bloggers. [...]