Impact Of Self Censorship In Malaysia

In the western world one tends to take the view that more freedom of speech, and more freedom of press is always better. This view is not shared everywhere in the world, most countries restrict freedom of speech in some way; and in no place is this trend more studied that in east asian countries. From the extreme control North Korea to the more western based ideas of Japan, all shades of censorship can be observed in east asia. The internet has changed the face of information sharing forever, and thus changed how to censor information. In countries like malaysia the transition has been difficult and well documented; showing how the malaysian government 's strict censorship policies will not be upheld on the internet due to the inability to …show more content…
Malaysia depends on self censorship, it even state it in the Communication and Multimedia Commision Act saying that self censorship is the prefered method of censorship, the government 's role in censorship is to encourage not force. Self censoring is easy when most of one 's information has already been ‘polished’ by the agencies reporting to fit pass government standards. Malaysia, up until 2015; had agreed to not censor the internet to maintain the potential economic growth the internet holds, and in doing so allowed malaysian for the first time in their history into a space where they could say most anything without facing serious repercussion, and for many the idea of self censorship fell to the …show more content…
Content access and content distribution. Content access is who can go where and talk to who. For example cameras and recording devices were not allowed at political rallies in malaysia until the 1990s so that is a form of content access. This type of control is simply not a feasible option in a world where everyone has a camera on themselves and transferring videos or photos to a public place takes only a few seconds. An example of control of content distribution is newspapers. In malaysia printers are required to get a permit; and that permit can be suspended indefinitely without notice. To differentiate further; communication devices can be censored; printing presses that produce more than a thousand copies an hour require a permit in malaysia. Media organizations can be censored; any businesses with radical missions if origins can be banned and forbidden from showing content in malaysia and content of different types can be censored. Only certain members of the government can see certain reports; such as financial reports; the information is not public and any material deemed seditious or sensitive such as political protests can be censored. Almost all of these forms of censorship revolve around a physical item; such