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I respect Rocky’s courage and the volunteers’ efforts to stand for Malaysians’ (last few inches) of freedom of speech and justice. If I am in his shoes right now, I probably get scared to pee on my pant and just delete my blog & beg [ DELETED ] not to put me to court.

[ DELETED ]

Jeff and Rocky, keep up your good work, we're behind you all the way!

Jeff,

How about putting a disclaimer clause/agreement before you allow readers to enter screenshots. Something like I by accessing www.jeffooi.com do hereby agree that comments posted there shall not be used as basis for any civil legal action...blah..blah..blahh (lawyer can draft thatlah)..

Then put in I agree or disagree box so the the readers can choose to agree or disagree.

After all I think your blog is something like your house . You don't go out and say things but people come knocking your address www.jeffooi.com to hear what you got to say. They invite themselves in to hear what you got to say. They have a choice not to hear you or go after others who chose to reproduce what you got to say if they feel they are defamed.

How?

huh..comments?
hmm..go to mamak stalls and hear what people say.

huh..comments?
hmm..go to mamak stalls and listen to what people say.

It looks like a pervert if you keep going near other mamak stall customers on other tables and listen to their conversation sneakily.

Complain about the comment?

First of all Blog is like Forum. Why don't this One-Of-Malaysian-Major-Newspaper-Company ask all Forum to take out comments they think is defaming?

Second, this One-Of-Malaysian-Major-Newspaper-Company didn't invent Blog. What is their rights to ask people not to use it? Blog is everywhere now.

Third, human being gain knowledge from sharing information together. The more people share their knowledge, the faster and bigger the impact. The Blog has showed its capability to share knowledge among people. It is THIS technology bring all people together. How about suing "The Internet"? Because "The Internet" carry all kind of things. It is the mother of all. Just because they can't find someone in "The Internet" to sue, they narrow down their search to Blogger. But the actual culprit is Commentor, not Blogger. If Blogger is responsible for the comment, then TMnet is responsible for Internet provision, and government is responsible for giving license and MIT is responsible for inventing Internet... why can't One-Of-Malaysian-Major-Newspaper-Company see the good side of the Internet and improve their standard to meet the world challenge? The World Is Flat. And you still didn't realize it, yet refuse to believe, refuse to grow up, refuse to learn.

Fourth, there wasn't any law to operate a Blog site. Unless government announce and set rule that all Blog sites is classified as "Media", and thus require license to operate, then this is a different case. Until then, all comments are free flow and do not require "Agree" or "Disagree". This is not porn site.

Fifth, Jeff Ooi and Rocky Bru is promoting responsible blogging and commenting. They point out the ugly side of organization and human nature, and all these bad habits are fixable. It is not a dead end. Those who can take the critics will survive not just within Malaysia but the world. By giving trouble instead of working-with Jeff and Rocky only bring more insult to One-Of-Malaysian-Major-Newspaper-Company than respect.

Grow up One-Of-Malaysian-Major-Newspaper-Company and its friends.

PEOPLE, should counter by getting the people responsible to court for negligence for not nego for the interest of rakyat on the TOLL.

I write this letter out of interests in what is being discussed these days about bloggers, there seems to be the general view that blogs or bloggers at part time journalist or want-to-be journalist. While it might be obvious why many people have this view, this certainly is not what a blog is. A blog by definition is in fact:

“A BLOG refers to a private webpage which is published by either an individual or a group of individuals.
BLOGS are commonly personal journals/diaries and are used to comment on all sorts of topics depending on the interests of the bloggers (author).
A BLOG is usually updated frequently, maybe monthly, weekly or even daily, it all depends on the blogger.
Most blogs enable the visitors to post comments and/or suggestions allowing interactivity between the blogger and the visitors. “Another yet similar definition is:

“Short for "Web Log," this term refers to a list of journal entries posted on a Web page. Anybody who knows how to create and publish a Web page can publish their own blog. Some Web hosts have made it even easier by creating an interface where users can simply type a text entry and hit "publish" to publish their blog.

Because of the simplicity of creating a blog, many people (often young kids and adults) have found a new presence on the Web. Instead of writing confidential entries in a book that no one is supposed to see, people now can share their personal feelings and experiences with thousands of people around the world. Blogs are typically updated daily, monthly, or anywhere in between. "Blog" may also be used as a verb, as in "Wow, Matt sure bogged a lot last week."

Thus what the above implies is that blogs are not by nature online newspapers and thus are not to be held in the same high standard of truth as newspapers are. Now I know many people on ere are gong to complain about that or states that these blogs that are being sued are different and should be held in the same standard. But they are not; they are in fact a personal view by one person(s). In other words they are they thoughts and opinion of a person’s own mind and nothing more or less than that. They pose their own thoughts on certain subjects and then allow other people to post their own thoughts on what the writer has said, no different then you sitting in your local coffee house and telling your friend you do not like a certain actor because you think he/she is conceited (even though you have no actual proof of that) and your friend disagrees with you.

Yes this is in a much larger audience and in the public domain, but no person was forced to go to that website, no person was forced to read it and no person was told “this is the truth-believe it) All blogs usually post that these are of opinions of the authors only. Similar to writing here in the letter section on Malaysiakini or in the NST or Star. How is it any different, we read everyday in the papers people complaining about the taxi drivers, in fact people have even said that the majority in KL or Penang do not use the meters. The taxi associations has stated otherwise and said it is only a handful that does not. Yet no taxi driver to association ahs taken the Stay or the NST to court and sued them for defamation over taxi drivers. Why not I ask? You might say it is a different thing but let’s look at it and see if it really is. You have people writing in to a large established public newspaper read by thousands everyday in the letters to the editor section. Some have clearly stated that “most” taxi drivers in KL and Penang “do not” use the meters (thus implying they are dishonest and flouting the law), this is read by people all over Malaysia and even in other countries. The Taxi Association has written in and said the opposite is true and no one has been sued over it. Now you have an Online Blog (not read by as many people as the newspapers are) and the blogs are personal opinions of the blogger themselves (not based on fact just their own thoughts) and they get sued. There is a double standard here. Surely you would be up in arms if the Taxi Association, The Nation Schools, etc were to sue you for your postings in a Newspaper. No matter what your beliefs are, no matter what you think facts are facts and the fact here is that blogs are define as a personal diary or journal (not to be confused with newspapers which are suppose to report news and the truth). Blogs have never stated they are the actual truth but an opinion of a person(s) that may or may not agree with certain other people. Look up the definition of blogs and bloggers, you will find hundreds of sites and dictionaries explaining the same above. You can not simply rewrite a new definition to something just because you do not agree with it. Even if a blogger claims they will research the facts, that their statements are based on actual reports they are still a personal journal and nothing really more than that.

Lastly I would just like to say, due a little research yourself on the internet, see how many mainstay newspapers around the world have actually taken a lawsuit against a writer or person for defamation, you will find very few. However what most “respectable” newspapers would do instead is opt to write a rebuttal about what had been written about them. Why does the [ DELETED ] not do the same, they have the masses and the ability to write a full page column about what had been said about them. So here we have the same [ DELETED ]taking three lawsuits: two against bloggers and one against the British News Agency, in which they will clearly loose on that front as at least the latter has the proof of what it wrote.

RMO, you hit the spot alright!

A rebuttal from [DELETED] would suffice to object anything that can be described as defamation.

Nevertheless, I believe that this is a blessing in an ugly disguise. Truth prevails in the long run but till that comes.. we shall fight the righteous fight.

Can a warong kopi be sued for the comments by people there?

Can a housewife be sued for the gossip of an artist which is already publicised in the news?

I think I am going to cease from writing in my diary. I cannot afford lawyers.

I believe very much in the freddom of speach, I also do agree that one must be responsible with that freedom, I also believe in the ability to sue for slander and defamation. However I also beleive there is an accountability that goes on both sides. As stated above, would you sue a person making normal gossip in a coffee house about an actor or singer?

Over the last 3 months there have been several letters over and over again in all the main newspapers in Malaysia and also on the online versions as well, mind you I said Newspapers and not blogs. We have read people calling the KLIA Limo service a scam, where they will not allow people to use the budget limos and have to upgrade to a high cost one (there have been more then 5 letters written saying this) even though there are in fact budget ones available just sitting around. We have read about the National Schools becoming more Islamic and not offering langauge studies other than only Arabic, we have read about people stating taxis in KL & Penang are out to rip off people, not using meters on average and try to over charge time and time again, We have read about problems with TNB, Maxis, Air Asia, and Astro, I am not talking about complaints or normal problems I am refering to several letters that have directly stated these companies or people are ripping off the public, do not care aboutt he public, will not follow the law, I am talking about direct accusations against these people. We see this more and more they come in waves once one or two people have made complaints. Yet to date not one, "not one person" at all has been sued for defamation or slander, what instead we have seen are these companies writting back and rebutting the accusations made against them.

Why are blogs different, well some of you might say becuase they are writting to a larger audinece, that they claim to champion the cause for the people, etc. This is hogwash and you know it, the letters to the editors in the main newspapers have a much, much larger audience, they are read both in print and online forms and reach millions of people around the world. Blogs can be biased, blogs can be politically biased, blogs can state I hate this person, blogs can say I beleive the president of a country is koo koo, nuts and when asked why they can say cause I think he has a funny looking face. No where has it been legislated that blogs are to be open and fair, no where has it been stated that blogs are owned by the public at large and thus should hold high standards. Again even if you do nto beleive this, it does nto matter, it is the truth: blogs are and always have been nothing more than a person's personal thoughts or opinion, thus what they are actually doing is sueing someone over their thoughts and yes their thoughts have been written down for all to see but that is just it, it is his own perosnaly opinion in which yo do nto have to agree. Another example, I open a blog and say I do not believe Malaysia is truly Asia, I believe that thailand is more Asian, why becuase it wes never colonized by any other government int he world. so can I be sued over that becuse it is my own opinion even if I say: I persoanlly think in my own opnion the Malaysian government is wrong in saying Malaysia is truly Asia, becuase Malaysia was once colonzied by the British and uses the British legal system here and also has some Mid-Eastern and Americna aspects to it while Thailand has always been Asian. No I can ot be sued over that and it is nothing more then my Personal thoughts. What is wrong with that?

I wish you guys good luck in defeating this suit.

I used to get NST but now I've switched over to The Star.

RMO, you are spot on. However, this is Malaysia. The [ DELETED ] happened to be backed by the State. So, they can do, virtually, anything they want. Including suing someone for thinking out loud.

Indeed, this is Truely Asian, and Uniquely Malaysian. It doesn't matter who you are in this country, it's who you know that matters... God help us.

Goodday to you, sir, wherever you are...

To Rocky & Jeff, we salute you for your courage. You'll have our support all the way.

cic_lemur,

Good move on your part. I hope more people will reject their newspaper simply because they are just acting like a big bully.

Strike out application based on technicality?

Why not try truth as defence?

Keep up the good work, someone up there will be looking after you and please lah Jeff, put on a nicer shirt..... :)

well, at least you'd look better in the photos. :D