Following is an interesting read extracted from the book that was launched at the Forum and Book Launch on “New Media and Democratization in Malaysia” December 5, 2008 at the KLSCAH auditorium, Kuala Lumpur.
The forum had featured as keynote speaker Yang Berhormat NIK NAZMI NIK AHMAD.
The occasion also witnessed the launch of a book titled “Blogging and Democratization in Malaysia“, and its co-authors , Jun-E Tan and Prof. Wan Zawawi Ibrahim, were present to speak about their work. Please support a worthy Malaysian initiative by placing an order at SIRD-Gerak Budaya, via Gerakbudaya.
Blogs and Malaysian Civil Society
Blogging as an instrument for democratization is only as effective as the civil society behind it. The discussion now turns to some qualitative and quantitative data to describe the empirical situation of utilizing blogs to fullfil freedom of expression and information in the Malaysian context. There are two sections to this chapter. The first addresses sections of Malaysian civil society exercising their civil liberties through blogs. In terms of freedom of expression, some observations are raised about the motivation of bloggers, blogs as a space for discourse, and the concept of “responsible blogging???, backed by data from the online survey and quotes from interviews. As some bloggers are faced with intimidation by various parties, there is some discussion of these encounters to understand the challenges that certain bloggers have experienced while exercising their right to free expression online. In terms of freedom of information, the types of information available through blogs and the level of trust blog readers have in various forms of media are also analyzed.
The next section describes how blogs could play an active role in setting or raising agendas for policy-making by looking at the progress and reactions to some prominent Malaysian blogsites.