Just for BUMmers' Record...

and Convenience. See how altruistic Desi is -- at Thy Service for No Fees!:(
Read my previous post and you will know the concept of "Karma" has had an effect on me for some time. Sometimes my sleep pattern is interspersed with loud cries of jubilation on striking the Big Lotto so that Desi can do more philanthropistic acts -- rewarded with 15 minutes of media fame, off course! Didn't translate into Reality shows yet. Nyet, and Oprah did knot invite Desi to takepart on her BIG GIVE!:(

Desi does quite (which is a funny word in English with democratic meanings of a few, several or many, your choice!) incidentally Cut&Pastrying of items for the convenience of self and other BUMmers in case they missed the menu, women2!

Here's one from the MI/Wall Street Journal. I know about Intellectual Property Rights -- in my limited vocab, it can translate into the availability to borrow for use and effort of God's gift tohuman minds as long as the receivers use such items for the beteerment of humanity, and acknowledge the original source/s, and intend to pay in cash orkind. For the kind, Desi repays in kind -- the cash will follow once his Blog ghets a sucker of a buyer on eBoy for 20million:)


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Southeast Asia Web censoring widens
Internet users surf at a cyber cafe in Kuala Lumpur in this file photo - Reuters pic
BANGKOK, Sept 15 — Attempts to censor the Internet are spreading to Southeast Asia as governments turn to coercion and intimidation to rein in online criticism.

Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam lack the kind of technology and financial resources that China and some other large countries use to police the Internet. The Southeast Asian nations are using other methods — also seen in China — to tamp down criticism, including arresting some bloggers and individuals posting contentious views online.

That is distressing free-speech advocates who had hoped that Southeast Asia - until recently a region where Internet use was relatively unfettered — would become a model of open debate in the developing world as its economies modernise.

Malaysia has recently used its colonial-era Internal Security Act, which allows detention for up to two years without trial, to muzzle bloggers. Thailand is ramping up its reliance on a recently introduced Computer Crimes Act to restrict criticism of its royal family and limit the spread of what the government calls seditious material. Vietnam, an authoritarian Communist state, has been arresting people caught posting thoughts that run contrary to government policy, and has detained lawyers who try to defend them.

“A number of governments in the region have discovered they can't use technology alone to block out dissent because people will always find a way around it,” says Roby Alampay, executive director of a Bangkok-based media advocacy group, the Southeast Asia Press Alliance. “Instead they are trying to send out the message that the government is watching what their citizens are up to, and many of these arrests are deliberately high-profile.”

To be sure, not every government in the region is trying to bolt down the Internet. Singapore, where mainstream media are largely controlled by the government, has taken a relatively hands-off approach to the Internet. The governments of Indonesia and the Philippines don't limit political content on the Internet in their countries.

The case of Raja Petra Kamarudin, Malaysia's best-known blogger, reveals a different approach. The 58-year-old prince, or raja, in one of Malaysia's royal families started his feisty Malaysia Today news Web site a decade ago after the arrest of opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim on sodomy charges, which Anwar denied. Anwar was convicted, jailed until the conviction was overturned, and is now being prosecuted again on sodomy charges, which he again is denying.

Since launching his Web site, Raja Petra has been a thorn in the side of Malaysia's ruling National Front coalition, posting a series of articles notable for their criticism of the government. In 2008, his postings led to his detention for nearly two months under the Internal Security Act.

Malaysian authorities have accused Raja Petra of suggesting in a letter to prosecutors investigating the murder of a Mongolian model in 2006 that Prime Minister Najib Razak was involved in the killing, which Najib denies. Raja Petra was charged with sedition and went into hiding. He says the charge is misdirected because he didn't publish the letter, though he admits writing it and stands by its contents.

Malaysian government spokesman Tengku Sharifuddin Tengku Ahmad declined to comment about Raja Petra's allegations, and he didn't respond to questions about the broader issues surrounding Malaysia's approach to censorship.

Malaysia's government is careful not to be seen to be directly censoring the Internet because of a longstanding pledge not to interfere online and potentially scare off foreign technology companies, such as Microsoft Corp., which operate there.

In August, Najib's government backed off from implementing Web filters similar to those used in China to weed out certain political topics and other contentious discussions. It has also considered requiring that bloggers register with the government, but decided not to implement the rule.

Instead, says Raja Petra, Malaysia's authorities are using criminal laws “to make an example of me so that others will run away from the truth,” although he says their efforts will backfire. “Other bloggers are becoming more vocal and more aggressive.”

Some media analysts suggest governments are catching up with the impact of the Internet and mobile-phone messaging and how they helped to trigger social upheavals in countries such as Ukraine and the Philippines. Iran's success in putting down Twitter and Facebook-driven protests this summer may have lent some indirect encouragement, too.

“Even if governments aren't censoring outright, they are providing an adequate disincentive to posting criticism. People now know there will be consequences,” says Rebecca MacKinnon, a professor of journalism and media studies at the University of Hong Kong and a co-founder of GlobalVoices, an international citizens' media Web site.

In Thailand, police last month arrested two people for forwarding an audio recording in which Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva purportedly orders soldiers to attack antigovernment demonstrators. Abhisit said the recording is fake. Another Thai, Suwicha Thakor, was sentenced to 10 years in jail in June after pleading guilty to posting videos mocking Thailand's revered monarchy.

Thai government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn says the country's computer-crime laws are designed to protect people from fraud and defamation, and says the laws are at times being used to address what he describes as “national security” issues.

In recent weeks in Vietnam, meanwhile, popular blogger Bui Thanh Hieu was detained for several days after criticising the government's mining policies; another blogger, Huy Duc, was fired from his job at a Ho Chi Minh City newspaper after the Communist Party complained about his posts, while others have also been briefly detained. Yesterday, blogger Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh said in a note posted on her Web site that she is abandoning blogging after police detained her for several days after she made some critical remarks about the government. “I came to blogging as an adventure in the world of information, but every game comes to an end,” Quynh said.

A Vietnamese foreign-ministry spokeswoman on Thursday said the bloggers had been detained to enable police to investigate alleged violations of national security.

Internet-freedom advocates worry that more governments beyond Southeast Asia will follow the region's lead and try to take additional steps to tighten Internet controls.

“Being blocked from visiting a Web site is frustrating,” Alampay, the Bangkok-based activist, says. “But when you see or hear about people being arrested, then that could stop you from logging on at all.” — Wall Street Journal