Is freedom of speech applied in the blogosphere?

As mention in one of my earlier post, blogging has been one of the most popular things to do these days. Mostly everyone will blog regardless of for their personal use, academics or even for advertising. Generally, people think that blogs are places where they have freedom of speech. However, without knowing that what is legal or illegal to write, many people offended some their specific readers which will lead to controversy.

According to El-Buri (2008) in ABC News, a Saudi blogger, Fouad al-Farhan was arrested by a Saudi security agent. It is believed by many people that he was arrested for writing about Saudi political prisoners and political reform although the Saudi officials mention that Farhan was arrested for non-security reasons. Even though many people sympathize with him and ask the officials to release him immediately by claming that he is only exercising his God-given right of speech, he is still detained. El-Buri then further his research by interviewing one of Farhan’s close friend and fellow Saudi blogger, Ahmed al-Omran (ABCnews 2008). In that interview, Ahmed said that although the boundary for freedom of expression in Saudi has been expanding over the past few years, but there are doubts in the country’s commitment to reforms that free of speech is a part of it.

In Malaysia, it has been pledged that there will not be censorship on the internet but bloggers are still bounded by the laws on defamation, sedition and other limits on speech (Lee 2007). For instance, an article in ZDNet Asia stated that popular bloggers Jeff Ooi and Ahirudin Attan were sued by the government when their comments have attracted a following among Malaysians disillusioned with the country’s mainstream newspaper, which they recognize to be pro-government (Lee 2007). Further in the article, a law lecturer, Professor Abu Bakar Munir stated that it was a fallacy for bloggers to think that they are protected from such action. He further mentions that there are no special safeguards for bloggers where the law does not differentiate between the online and offline world.

Therefore, although many people assume that they are able to voice out their expressions in the online world without breaking any law, they are wrong. According to Nielsen (2000), there is an apparent danger to democracy anytime we suppress freedom of speech. Hence, bloggers should be more careful and sensitive in their posts in order to avoid such controversy.

References

El-Buri, R. 2008, ‘Saudi blogger: This country needs controversy’, ABCnews, viewed on 11th June 2008 at http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2008/02/saudi-blogger-t.html.

Lee, M.K. 2007, ‘Bloggers crackdown may hurt Malaysia’, ZDNet Asia, viewed on 11th June 2008 at http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/internet/0,39044908,62031901,00.htm.

Lee, M.K. 2007, ‘Court cases unite M’sian bloggers’, ZDNet Asia, viewed on 11th June 2008 at http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/internet/0,39044908,61994206,00.htm.

Nielsen, J. 2000, ‘WAP backlash’, useit.com, viewed on 11th June 2008 at http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20000709.html.