Monday, 29-Dec-2003 7:41 AM

Internet censorship hits freeanwar.com

Malaysians have very little sources of alternative news. All the mainstream newspapers are pro-government and would not dare run any story uncomplimentary to the government. Those that do are closed down, as The Star once was when it appeared not in line with the government’s thinking. Today, most newspapers practice self-censorship. This is necessary to ensure you stay in business. The more independent minded ones that are difficult to control, but cannot be closed down because they are just too popular, are bought over. One way or another, the government controls the press -- whether it is through licensing, prosecution, persecution, or acquisition. Harakah is one such victim of persecution -- disguised as a prosecution -- and it would now have to watch its step lest it runs foul of the “rules” and face permanent closure.

So, where do you go to obtain the truth? At the height of the Reformasi Movement, the Internet provided this avenue for alternative news, though not necessarily always offering the truth. Though much of what is written on the Internet may be mere speculation and unfounded rumours, many would tend to believe, or at least half-believe, what they read. Understandably, as the writers and webmasters are anonymous, you would take what they say with a pinch of salt unless evidence was also included, like scanned documents and the like.

But Malaysia has another law to control free speech and the dissemination of documents, the Official Secrets Act (OSA), that makes it a crime to reveal, possess, distribute and talk about documents that has this magic “RAHSIA” (secret) rubber stamp on it. The Parti Keadilan Nasional (keADILan) Youth Leader, Ezam Mohd Nor, found out the hard way what you would suffer for revealing such documents when he was sentenced to 18 months jail for revealing what the government considered a “secret document”.

Ezam’s defence was sound. The document may have had the rubber stamp on it, but it was no secret for, prior to his revelation, the entire media had carried the story of the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) investigation of Rafidah Aziz’s and Rahim Thambi Chik’s corrupt acts. But it was not whether the document was a secret or not that was the key to the whole issue. It was the rubber stamp that made it a crime to be in possession of such documents. Even if worthless toilet paper had this rubber stamp on it, it would still be a crime to be in possession of it. That was the crux to the whole issue, the rubber stamp.

But this law only stretches to “hard copies” of these documents. What goes onto the Internet is untouchable. If you cannot distribute hard copies, then you float it onto the Internet and all and sundry can have access to it.

One-time Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad had created a monster. The Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) was his brainchild. He had promised no control of the Internet. How could he now go back on his word and try to control the Internet? This would guarantee the MSC, which was struggling to survive, would certainly not survive.

They still tried nevertheless. Dr Chandra Muzaffar, the Deputy President of keADILan then, was brought to court to be charged for a statement he made considered “contempt of court” (he had criticised the proceedings of the Anwar Ibrahim trial). But Dr Chandra’s statement was carried on the Internet and the court declared that the Internet is not located in Malaysia -- it was in “nowhere land” -- so Dr Chandra had committed no crime in Malaysia. Dr Chandra escaped punishment therefore.

Then I was arrested in March 2001 on Hari Raya Haji Day (Eid Adha) for what I had written on the freeanwar.com website. According to the police, my articles incited people to hate the government (menghasut rakyat membenci kerajaan). I had therefore committed an act of sedition. They were never able to charge me for this alleged crime though. I argued that my so-called crime was not committed in Malaysia as the freeanwar.com website is hosted overseas. They let me go but came to my house to confiscate my computer as “evidence” of my “crime”. The fact they had no warrant was of no consequence.

From the “evidence” they found in my computer, they were able to build up a case against me and about a month later, on 11 April 2001, they detained me under the Internal Security Act (ISA) for being “a threat to national security”, the common line used to detain anyone under the ISA. In what way was I a threat to national security? Well, what I had written in the freeanwar.com website would incite the people to hate the government. I suppose people must be incited to love the government, not hate it. In Malaysia, inciting people towards hatred is a crime. What if I incite people to hate gambling, drinking and prostitution? What if the people rise in anger at the maksiat (vices) rampant in the country and it is all because of what I wrote? Would this too constitute a crime? I suppose, going by this same argument, it would.

But this is the limit the powers-that-be can go -- intimidation, harassment, threats, detention without trial, and so on. They could even try to close you down by confiscating your computers, which malaysiakini.com too suffered awhile back. Whatever it may be, you are still in business, one way or another. The only way they could put you out of business permanently is to erase you from the Internet. And to do this they would need to get to the host server. As most of these anti-government websites are hosted on overseas servers this would be almost impossible to do. At least we thought so, until now.

Around two years ago, many Reformasi websites were closed down because of complaints by “certain authorities”. Most of them were hosted free-of-charge on tripod.com so this was not difficult to do. But they could not touch the paying customers. Now they can.

On 11 December 2003, freeanwar.com was closed down by the host in UK because of a complaint received about some of the content on the website. Without discussion, warning or show cause, freeanwar.com went off the air. On 22 December, after an 11-day “rest”, RSF and BBC came to freeanwar.com’s rescue by phoning the host, Easyspace, and the website was immediately restored.

This one experience demonstrates how vulnerable websites are from government clampdown. All they need to do is get one anonymous member of the public to complain and you are immediately out of business. Where will it end? What if someone complains about harakahdaily.net or malaysikini.com? What if the government writes a letter to the host of these two and threaten to sue them if they continue to host harakahdaily and malaysiakini on their servers? Before you can utter “MSC”, both these sites would be out of business.

Freedom of the press does not exist in Malaysia. Until very recently, the only freedom of the press was the Internet media. Now that too has gone. The government realises they cannot get the webmasters. Even in instances when they can, no amount of intimidation can silence them. So they go for the website hosts instead. Understandably, the hosts are earning less than RM100 a month hosting these websites. Why should they go through the trouble of a court case, even if they can win the case? If anyone threatens them with a civil suit, they just pull the plug and the problem is solved. Whether freedom of the press is killed in the process is not their fight.

So, where do we go from here? Do webmasters now too practice self-censorship to ensure they stay in business? Would this spell the end of the alternative media? This seems to be the way it is going. The Internet is going to be a very boring place from now on if what goes onto the websites is only what the government approves.

But freeanwar.com is not going to buckle. If we need to migrate to a new host to continue writing what we believe in, then so be it. Even if we have to shift from host to host every month to keep saying what we have been saying these last four years then we would do so. But we will never be silenced.

RAJA PETRA KAMARUDIN