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| With press freedom under pressure all over Southeast Asia, citizens are increasingly using the Internet to voice critical views. (EPA Photo) |
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With
bloggers and social media activists increasingly coming under the same kind of
state scrutiny given to traditional journalists, calls are increasing for a new
approach to citizen journalism that does not court censorship.
Zheng
“William” Wei, a prominent blogger from Singapore, said that with Web
censorship not an option, it was up to bloggers to be more judicious about what
they posted.
“What’s
important now is how to get people to behave more responsibly on the Internet,”
he said at a recent gathering in Jakarta of bloggers and social media activists
from across Southeast Asia.
Zheng added
that governments also had a role to play, arguing that by engaging more with
citizens through their online presence, no government should have to resort to
censorship.
“If a
government is confident about addressing domestic issues through the Internet,
it will have better communication with its citizens in cyberspace and no longer
have to censor,” he said.
He also
said that in order to reduce the incidence of bloggers posting libelous
content, there was a growing movement within Web communities for people to use
their real identities in their blogs and other social media accounts.
“By having
to use one’s real name, Internet users will become more responsible and careful
about what they say on the Internet,” Zheng said.
Flow
Galindez, a blogger from the Philippines who also spoke at the discussion
hosted at @america, the American cultural center, said that responsible
blogging habits were key to keeping government censors at bay.
“The
concept that needs to be publicized now is for bloggers to ‘think before you
click,’ ” he said, This, he added, applies to blog content critical of the
government as well as post attacking individuals, groups or companies.
Marcus van
Geyzel, a Malaysian-based blogger and lawyer, said that bloggers in the country
were not subject to censorship, but were liable to lawsuits.
“The main
issue that bloggers have to face in Malaysia is the risk of being sued for
slander,” he said.
Van Geyzel
attributed the booming blogging community in Malaysia to the relative lack of
press freedom for the mainstream media in the country, and across much of
Southeast Asia, as indicated in the 2010 Press Freedom Index published by
Reporters Without Borders.
“What’s
being reported in the mainstream media isn’t a lie, but it’s only half the
truth,” van Geyzel said. “That’s why people are starting to lose trust in the
mainstream media.”
With
blogging only starting to take off in the country, he said, the Malaysian
government is not censoring blogs, but rather engaging with bloggers.
“They’re
choosing to use the Internet instead of blocking it,” he said. He attributed
this to a concession by the administration of Prime Minister Najib Razak to
“appear friendly to bloggers.”
However, he
cautioned that over the long term, the Malaysian authorities were unlikely to
encourage an unfettered increase in the number of bloggers.
“The
government won’t support that idea and will be very careful about accommodating
more bloggers, because what the latter might write could hurt the
[government’s] credibility,” van Geyzel said.
While other
governments in the region have maintained a hands-off approach to free speech
on the Internet, the Thai government has come under widespread criticism for
its lese- majeste law that allows the prosecution of those posting any content
deemed insulting to the country’s revered monarchy.
Arthit
Suriyawongkul, coordinator of the Thai Netizen Network, told the discussion
that the overriding concern among the online community there was that “for
expressing oneself on the Internet, one can be jailed.”
He also
disagreed with Zheng, the blogger from Singapore, about the need to require
bloggers to use their real identities. He said anonymity was still the best
protection state persecution.
“Anonymity
is still necessary to protect people who have expressed opinions that go
against what those in power believe,” he said.
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