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Information Minister Datuk Ahmad Shabery Cheek said that the emergence of Blogs were not caused by the Government’s effort to control mainstream media. He added that it is not because of the unfairness of the mainstream media that the mass have started to look for an alternative for information. Instead Blogging emerged because it is fast picking up among the Netizens.
He said that "This is the trend in the world now, not to say there no are no blogs in the United States or Australia where the media have more freedom... they (blogs) are everywhere and it is not right to make a conclusion that their proliferation in the country is because of media restrictions,"
In his winding up speech, he added that there are some opposition MPs would see media freedom only through what the local print and electronic media is capable of. Although there were restrictions for the mainstream media, the government did not stop anyone from posting information on the internet unlike the more stringent countries like Iraq and China.
He said "The fact and reality is that Malaysia is not taking the path of these countries. This freedom is available in Malaysia and we do not have laws like in Iraq, deemed and advanced nation, but there are all kinds of restrictions on blogs. Relatively, there is much more freedom in Malaysia than compared to a lot of countries. As such, do not be myopic that there is no press freedom in the country by looking at just a few aspects and not admitting that the new media is given ample room to operate,"
There was a suggestion to prolong the live coverage of the parliamentary proceedings and he replied that the issue is being considered. Currently there are about 240,000 to 300,000 viewership for that programme.
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