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Malaysia mulls 'cyber court' to handle Internet crimes
Agence France Presse - January 6, 2009
Kuala Lumpur – Malaysia is considering establishing a "cyber court" to deal with the increasing number of crimes related to the Internet and blogging, a report said Tuesday.
Communications Minister Shaziman Abu Mansor said more than 30 Internet-linked cases had been submitted to the country's attorney general in the past three years.
"If in future if we cannot cope any more due to too many cases, we may need to have a cyber court," he said, according to the official news agency Bernama.
Shaziman said police were investigating one case of a blog that allegedly published offensive content on Islam and the Prophet Mohammed, under the name of a Muslim Malay woman who has denied her involvement.
Malaysia's mainstream media is tightly controlled by the government, which has expressed frustration over its inability to rein in blogs and Internet portals, which have become popular alternative news sources.
Since last year it has taken action against several online figures, including detaining the nation's most popular blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin under a tough security law that allows for detention without trial.
Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders has ranked Malaysia 124 out of 169 on its worldwide press freedom index.
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