With people keeping personal web sites reaching to about 100 million in 2007, the popularity of blogs has been in epic proportions. Anything that good, however, has its price. In Malaysia, two prominent bloggers were sued by a pro-government newspaper over alleged defamation. Further, just this September, a blogger was ordered to be detained by Malaysia’s interior minister for two years for insulting Islam and a certain political leader.
In Belarus, a new law waiting for the signature of its President, Alexander Lukachenko, seeks to force all media to undergo a new registration process, and to provide for stricter state control of online publications. These events show the response that some people (in others, States), especially those under the scrutiny of blogs to react in a rather draconian manner. With any person capable of making blogs on about anything under the sun, the risk of balancing the right to expression and the right to privacy of contending parties are placed under a microscope. With the popularity of blogs and its probability of swaying public opinion, states are now keen to control the otherwise free flow of ideas of people. Now, a blog bashing Gloria seems not to be a good idea after all…. Or is it?
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