Malaysian fined over online insults to Sultan

by israeli.agent | March 13, 2009 at 05:46 am

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A Malaysian man was fined 10,000 ringgit ($2800 ) for posting comments of the Perak Royal Website using nasty an dobscene words - according to Attorney General Abdul Gani Patail.

Azrin Mohamad Zain, a 33-year-old lab assistant,pleaded guilty to insulting Sultan Azlan Shah in a comment on his website.

Malaysia is a Federal constitutiona elective monarchy and the the King is the head of the state.Almost all of Malaysia's media is under strict government control. Despite the promise not to regulate online content in order to draw more investors, recent years have seen lot of crackdown on online community if they criticise the government

A man was fined almost $2,800 Friday for insulting a Malaysian sultan in an online posting, government officials said, the latest in a series of actions against Internet writers in this Southeast Asian country.
Five others were also charged for "improper use of facilities" by making comments deemed "obscene, indecent, false, menacing or offensive" on the Web site of the sultan of northern Perak state, representatives of the attorney general's office said on condition of anonymity citing protocol.

Malaysia - known for its strict control of the media - had once promised not to regulate online content in a bid to draw more investors but in recent years has cracked down on online commentary critical of the government.