Not Me... No.. no Not Me..

Who ordered the ban on RPK's website?

There was a big hoo hah the other day when the popular website Malaysia Today was banned by MCMC... so much so we have even Dr. M lashing out on the censorship... not to be outdone, Khairy has also come out with guns blazing against those who ordered the ISPs in Malaysia to block the website.

But until today, nobody seems to be shot. No injuries... because it seems that NO ONE ordered MCMC to block the website.

Energy, Water and Communications Minister Shaziman, who was away when the ban was enforced, confirmed that it was not his decision on returning to the country.

Since NO ONE ordered the website to be blocked... then who is it that dear botak is defending la?

Shaberry also denied that he was behind it. Deputy Minister of Energy and Telecommunication, Edward Salang also deny issuing the move.

But I am quite certain the person responsible for it was stated in the news somewhere......

Here?

MCMC chief operating officer Mohamed Sharil Tarmizi, when contacted today, confirmed that the block was ordered by the commission, which is the regulatory body for online content.

"It is being blocked because we found that some of the comments on the website were insensitive, bordering on incitement," he told Malaysiakini.

The question is can MCMC be the mother of all censor board? Do we have a rogue COO? Who is the "we" that he is talking about?

Mohamed Sharil said MCMC had instructed all ISPs to block access to Malaysia Today based on complaints received by the general public regarding offensive comments posted on the website.

Asked if the move to block Malaysia Today went against the government’s guarantee of Internet freedom, he said that the matter was subject to interpretation.

“We are governed by the Communications and Multimedia Act (1998) which allows us to take preventive measures and advise our license holders (such as ISPs) when a service user may be contravening national laws,” he said.

Under Section 263 of the Act, a licensee must “use his best endeavour” to prevent his/her facilities from being used to violate any law in the country".

Mohamed Sharil said that MCMC will be communicating with the Malaysia Today owner Raja Petra Kamaruddin and other blog owners soon regarding “ethical blogging”.

“We are not against blogs, but we would like to see ethical blogging,” he stressed.

Is this a threat? Do we need an internet nanny to tell us what we can do and cannot do?

While they are asking who gave the order, I guess when it comes to crunch time and nobody wants to be blamed, poor Mohamed Sharil will have to play the fall guy for being the idiot that gave the order. It was his order and his alone.... nobody else ordered him to.. no doubt that many of us would believe the one who ordered the ban must be someone keeping a very elegant and explosive silence.