Police reports against bloggers

Blogging and the law has made headlines of late in many countries around the world. In Malaysia alone, within the last 2 weeks there were 2 police reports involving bloggers.

Last week, opposition party PKR information bureau staff Nathaniel Tan was remanded to facilitate investigations under the Official Secrets Act in connection with a Deputy Minister's corruption case.

The latest police report was one lodged against Malaysia Today on July 23 which stated that it carried a series of comments and remarks that insulted the King, degraded Islam and incited hatred and violence in the country.

Ruling party UMNO information chief Tan Sri Muhammad Muhammad Taib who lodged the report said: "I think they are very irresponsible and forget that our country has sensitivities on the King's institution, race and religion."

The Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia, in commenting on the police report said: "There is no special decision by the Cabinet to go against bloggers, but citizens must be aware that there are laws in this country."

He said anyone could lodge a police report and it was up to the authorities to investigate whether any law had been contravened.

Interesting Article on Blogging Laws

For bloggers, US bloggers in particular, blogging has become full of potential legal issues and the situation is made worse by the fact that law in this area is constantly in flux.

In the article 12 Important U.S. Laws Every Blogger Needs to Know a dozen of the most important US laws regarding blogging are highlighted and some simple tips for handling and overcoming them are provided.

The 12 laws deal with: disclosure of paid posts, deep linking, images and thumbnails, copyright, trademark domain names, readers' private data, user-developed content, monitoring blog comments, tax laws, limited liability laws, spam laws, and journalism shield laws.

Go to 12 Important U.S. Laws Every Blogger Needs to Know. It's worthwhile reading.