DENPASAR, Indonesia — Bloggers United Malaysia 2007, Malaysia’s first national meeting on blogging, will be aimed at promoting blogging with a series of talks and workshops. However, when Malaysia’s tech-savvy meet at Petaling Jaya’s Lake View Club May 19, there is little doubt that the most pressing topic at hand will be how to stave off a government push to crack down on online expression. Blogging has taken Malaysia by storm, rapidly becoming an alternative voice to the state-controlled media. Washington-based Freedom House ranked Malaysia at 150 out of 195 nations surveyed in its latest global survey of press freedom. [...]
Promoting America in the Muslim world is surely a good idea. Launching a TV station devoted to that purpose? That would seem to be a good idea, too. In practice, however, the station, founded in early 2004, has struggled from the outset to dispel the notion that it is a U.S. propaganda outlet — a tough task, given that it is financed by the U.S. Congress. Calling it “Alhurra,” which translates into Arabic as “the free one” — not such a good idea. When taxpayers foot the bill, “free” is at best a metaphor. And for some among its audience [...]
BANGKOK, Thailand — Iranian money is behind a strategic oil pipeline to be built across Malaysia with the aim of linking the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea — and eliminating a militarily vulnerable shipping bottleneck via Singapore. Almost half the world’s oil tankers pass through the narrow Strait of Malacca bound for East Asia, not least China, on their way from Middle Eastern and North African oil fields. Now the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) is helping finance an estimated $14 billion land transshipment route across northern Malaysia, ostensibly to save three to four days of sea travel [...]
