From declan@well.comWed Aug  7 11:48:22 1996
Date: Wed, 7 Aug 1996 00:02:01 -0500
From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
To: fight-censorship@vorlon.mit.edu
Subject: Malaysia claims it censors only "offensive" material online

[So Malaysia will censor only material that some government bureaucrat
finds "offensive?" What a commitment to free speech! Cynically, Declan]


         KUALA LUMPUR, July 31 (Reuter) - Malaysia on Thursday
unveils plans for a ``multimedia super corridor'' (MSC), which it
hopes will attract a new breed of foreign investors and propel
the country into the 21st century.

[...]

         [Proj director] Azzman said Malaysia would guarantee the
free flow of information. Sceptics have questioned that commitment in
a country where newspapers are licensed and the Printing and
Publications Act has been used to muzzle dissent.
         ``We have not censored the Internet, so the free flow of
information is very much the order of the day,'' said Azzman who
is director general of the Malaysian Institute of
Microelectronic Systems, a government agency that provides sole
access to the Internet in the country.
         ``We won't police what they do as long as it is within the
confines of the company,'' he said, adding companies in the MSC
can receive information from abroad, process it and then
transmit it out of the country without interference.
         The government would act only if illegal or offensive
materials like pornography were distributed within Malaysia.
         Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates had agreed to set up a
regional office after meeting Mahathir last month. A ``couple of
dozen'' others have expressed ``keen interest'', Azzman said.
         The corridor would link the new airport and the futuristic
Putrajaya federal capital with the Kuala Lumpur City Centre, a
mammoth office highrise project featuring the Petronas Towers,
the world's tallest buildings.

[...]