The study is undertaken on the premise that the technological
advancement of blogs has not only accorded a novel platform for
communication, but has also democratised the right to exercise
political expression in Malaysia. Blogs have on numerous occasions
outpaced restrictive laws that were enacted to curtail the exercise of
this fundamental right and have caused great challenges in applying
the existing specific media laws to online content in the blogosphere.
The main purpose of the study is to resolve the legal uncertainties
faced by bloggers in disseminating political speech under the existing
laws of the country and to analyse the legal position in the United
Kingdom as a comparative model or reference to the issue. In so
doing, the study examines the general principles and restrictive laws
to freedom of expression and the application of these rules to political
blogs, scrutinises the statutory rules and regulations that are currently
being employed to govern the traditional media and the Internet as
well as other relevant general legislation, in particular the law of
defamation, that has been commonly employed to regulate blog
entries and comments by readers in both countries. The study
concludes that although offline and online content should not be
treated differently and certain regulatory controls are undoubtedly
necessary to prevent misuse of political blogs by unscrupulous
persons, any legal measures to be adopted by the Malaysian
government to govern political blogs should take into account the
rapid development of various forms of Internet based communications
and be proportionate in light of current needs and the local
circumstances of the society
