Rais said there are already adequate laws to address online criminality.
Malaysia is committed to keeping the Internet free as there are existing laws to deal with any illegal online activity, Information, Communications and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Rais Yatim said today.
“The policy has never changed... up until now, no conditions, censorship or filter have been imposed,” he told reporters here when affirming Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s promise yesterday to not censor the Internet.
“If someone, for example, breaks laws on pornography or gambling... that individual will have to answer to the existing laws of the country.”
Rais recently sued a blogger for alleging that the minister had raped his former Indonesian maid.
The Jelebu MP filed a statement of claim against Abdul Mutalib Mohamed Daud in January over four articles posted on the Sabahkini website, which the minister said featured false words which were malicious and implied he was of unchaste behaviour and loose morals.
In his suit, Rais said the defamatory words portrayed him as a person capable of getting former prime minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to help cover up a rape case.
Rais is also seeking an injunction compelling the defendant to remove the defamatory articles of him from the blog and damages deemed fit by the court.
Abdul Mutalib is the second blogger to be sued by Rais over the rape claims, after a similar suit was filed against Amizudin Ahmat.
Rais denied the rape allegations in February after a blogger named him.
Subsequently, a woman, who worked as his maid for eight years, denied in an Indonesian news portal that she had ever been mistreated or raped by her then-employer.
