11 Jul 11 | Index Index, minipost, News and features
Police in Malaysia made 1600 arrests at the weekend, as protesters ignored government warnings to cancel anti-government action. Leaders of the opposition coalition, Bersih, who have led the campaign for a “free and fair” election system, were amongst the thousands detained. An estimated 10, 000 police officers used tear gas and batons against the 50, 000 people who took to the streets of Kuala Lumpar. Crowds chanting, “Reformasi!” (“Reforms”), ‘”God is great” and “Long Live the People” were successfully prevented from gaining access to the to the king’s palace to hand over a memorandum detailing their demands.
28 Jun 11 | Index Index, minipost
Malaysian authorities arrested and detained 30 opposition members for planning a protest rally to be held on 9 July. The Malaysian prime minister, Najib Razak, claimed the activists were communists conspiring to overthrow the government.
18 Apr 11 | Index Index, minipost
On 15 April, a number of opposition and news websites were subject to attacks by hackers causing them to crash. The distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack came in the run-up to elections in Malaysia’s eastern state of Sarawak. An online Malaysian news portal, Malaysiakini, was forced to get its news stories out via Facebook, WordPress and other free websites.
21 Mar 11 | Index Index, minipost
Radio broadcasters have censored lyrics to Lady Gaga’s song “Born This Way” to avoid contravening the country’s strict decency laws. Broadcasters have distorted the line “no matter gay, straight or bi, lesbian, transgendered life, I’m on the right track, baby”. AMP, one of the biggest private radio networks in Malaysia, said that lyrics had been censored as a precaution because they “may be considered as offensive when viewed against Malaysia’s social and religious observances”.
