Você está na página 1de 5

TITLE OF THE ESSAY: In Malaysia, absolute freedom of expression must be

guaranteed in social media.


FB group name : Bronze B02B
Names
Char Chee Hau
Wong Jia Fei
Lee Ming Lie
Low Yet Leng

Students ID

Your registered

1141327458
1141327513
1141326948
1141327008

Tutorial section
B02B
B02B
B02B
B02B

Components

Grading scheme

Labeling argument

1 mark

Your
marks

Soundness

of

1 mark

conclusion
Soundness of premise

1 mark

1
Soundness of premise

1 mark

2
Soundness

of

0.5

supporting

Supporting statements
Individual participation

statements = 2 marks
4 marks

in FB
TOTAL

10 marks

Assignment 1
Freedom of expression is the rights to express ones opinions and ideas freely through
writing, speech, and other forms of communication. Freedom of expression is a fundamental
human right. This rights allows one to voice out their mind freely on the important issues in
the society. Social media is defined as the websites and other online tools that means of
communication that are used by large groups of people to share information and to develop
social and professional contacts, In other words, freedom of expression in social media is the

right to express ones opinions and ideas freely through websites and other online tools that
means of communication. In Malaysia, there is a law that enacted the freedom of speech, that
is Sedition Act of 1948. Our Prime Minister Najib Razak vowed during the election period in
2012 to repeal this law as what he sees in this law is archaic. However, he announced that the
law would be strengthened in order to preserve domestic harmony after two years. Malaysia
strengthened the Sedition law by imposing a minimum jail term of three years and allowing
the government to block online media deemed to be seditious. However, social media
especially social networking is the method that the generations used today to communicate
with other. There are some cases that some people may create an fake account to spread
rumors especially those accounts that without a profile picture. Therefore, the government
view freedom of speech in social media needs to be controlled because the media today is the
critical in society as the mass media performs a number of essential functions in our daily
life. The essential functions for example like they serve an information for researches
purpose, helps us to socialize and educate us as well as to entertain us. As we can see from
this point, we are now living in a media culture and its influence is becoming very
widespread, the number of hours that we spend consuming the media is overwhelming.
Therefore, if the freedom of speech in social media is not controlled by the government, it
will brings the effects like the citizen misuse the freedom granted to them and leads to chaos
happen as well as putting our country in a dangerous situation. (Intro, Yet Leng).
Due to the effects, absolute freedom of speech is guaranteed in social media will leads
to the citizens misuse the freedom that granted to them caused chaos occur and endanger our
country in spreading the rumors and false information to the public, we disagree the absolute
freedom of expression must be guaranteed in social media in Malaysia (C, Yet Leng).
The citizens misuse the freedom that granted to them (P1, Yet Leng). They might talk
about some sensitive issues including those related to special privileges for bumiputras
especially the parts that deal with the special rights of Malays and natives of Sabah and
Sarawak that would harass the multiracial public in Malaysia.(SA1, Yet Leng, Ming Lie).
All these sensitive issues will destroy the inter-races harmony of Malaysia that have been
built up by using 58 years that is after the Merdeka in year 1957. In other words, discussion
of sensitive issues should be avoided as it will leads to chaos such as the May 13, 1969 racial
riots in Malaysia (A, Yet Leng, Ming Lie). As a result, there are some laws and regulations
that restricted the freedom of expression in the country for example article 10 in order for the
society not to fall into chaos (REF, Yet Leng). If the freedom of expression is absolute, this
means that allow for the burning of flags and hate speech. We believed that there might be
minority of people who are not satisfy with some decisions of management of a country and
they will burn flags or come out with hate speech in order to express out their anger. As a
result, if this occurs, the society will fall into chaos to the level of uncontrollable situations
that will affect the country imagine and reputations (A, Yet Leng). Besides that, as the
technology today ease the people to communicate through social media, all the news and
rumors can be spread around by just one click (SA2, Yet Leng, Jia Fei). As we can see, the
issue that happened recently in LowYat Plaza which located at Jalan Bukit Bintang (The Star,
July 12, 2015). The news spread around in Facebook even faster than the newspaper just
because there are people shared some videos in Facebook to let others to comment (EVI, Yet
Leng, Chee Hau). The harsh comments are just the opinions of individual. Once wrongly
apply the freedom of expression could turn people become more selfish which they think
themselves are completely right (SA3, Chee Hau). Most of them judged the news which
posted by social media without understanding the situation and they exploited the rumour to
achieve fame (A, Chee Hau). They try to express it through their feeling but not with

evidence in order to get attention or support by others. As a result, there are widespread of
rumours on the case which will affect the reputation of Malaysia and where racist happened
(A, Chee Hau). Furthermore, absolute freedom of expression in social media can also be
misused for internet bullying and victimising. (SA4, Ming Lie) This is because it provides
people the opportunity to upset and gossip whereby those endless hurtful words could
mentally hurts the victims and even causes suicide cases to take place. (A, Ming Lie, Yet
Leng) . Cyberbullying will caused the victims have a lifelong phobia especially for the
children. One example like the bullying case The Megan Meier Case (1992-2006), which
published in The New York Times is one of the cyberbullying cases that causes a tragedy in
which the mother found her daughter had hanged herself in her bedroom closet. (EVI, Ming
Lie) In this case, for some, cyberbullying is a serious problem and a reality, while for others,
the remarks, photos and videos maybe just a source of laughter and entertainment for them to
make fun of. (SA5, Ming Lie, Yet Leng) Moreover, social media especially social
networking is one of the expression channels with absolute freedom. Freedom of expression
in social media allows users to update status frequently by always posting their everyday life
and share their location through Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. This causes the users
information in the risk of being used by criminals without their noticed. (SA6, Jia Fei, Ming
Lie) Those people may expose themselves to serious problem for example identity theft and
harassment. Identities can be stolen and pictures can be downloaded and modified to create
false stories. (A, Jia Fei) The victims have to deal with emotional pain for years to come. To
avoid misuse of freedom of expression, the government has few ways to reduce these cases to
be happened. One of the way will be, the government can implement new law to protect
anyone from being a victim such as actions will be taken to those who break the law. This
will make the people to think twice or maybe more before they speak or post anything to
anyone. Besides that, the government may organise some campaign to create awareness to the
public and shows them the effect of misuse freedom of expression by flim a role play added
into television channel. The government also can distribute flyers to public about the right
way of using their freedom of speech. This will reduce the rate of people that misuse their
freedom of expression. Last but not least, the government may also educate Malaysian by
adding an addition topic/chapter about freedom of expression and example of misuse freedom
of expression into their subject syllabubs. This is the best way because it implants the idea
and practise of do not misuse freedom of expression since they were young. If all these steps
were taken by Malaysian government, this will highly reduce the cases of misuse freedom of
expression to occur. (A, Jia Fei, Chee Hau)
In addition, if the absolute freedom of expression in social media is guaranteed in
Malaysia, this will put our country in a dangerous situation. (P2, Chee Hau) This is because,
Malaysia is a politically stable environment which is led by a democratically-elected coalition
Government committed to the development of its economy. (SA1, Chee Hau, Ming Lie) The
citizens will concern on the hot topic of politic everyday from time to time. (A, Yet Leng)
The recent case that drew peoples attentions to is our Prime Minster of Malaysia (Datuk Seri
Najib Tun Razak) had made an extremely tough decision on removing Deputy Prime Minister
(Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin) from the Cabinet. (EVI, Chee Hau, Yet Leng) This decision had
been made because they claimed that Deputy Prime Minister has misused the freedom of
expression by creating public misconception. (SA2, Chee Hau) However, in this situation,
some of the irresponsible parties start to spreading such rumours in order to benefit
themselves. (A, Ming Lie, Chee Hau) For illusion, people spread rumor worldwide about
that PDRM has the warrant to arrest Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin. (REF, Chee Hau) Somehow,
our new Deputy Prime Minister ( Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi ) doubt about it and he
seeks for answers by calling the Attorney-General and Inspector-General of Police to verify

the allegation. (SA3, Ming Lie, Jia Fei) As predicted, the police will not be going to arrest
Deputy Prime Minister and he stated that investigation will be carried out in order to find out
the source of the rumors. (EVI, Jia Fei, Chee Hau) He also mentioned that heavy actions
will be taken on those people who create and spread the rumors or specifically named it as lie
all around just to create trouble to Deputy Prime Minister or make fun of. (EVI, Yet Leng,
Ming Lie) In this case, just imagine that, what if our Deputy Prime Minister is being arrested
just because of everyone trusts that rumor? (SA4, Yet Leng) This will endanger our country
in terms of economic and politic. (A, Ming Lie) First we will talk about the politic effect, if
our Deputy Prime Minister was suspected in committing crime, some of the government
department will get influence such as the process of work will have to hold on temporary just
to wait the approval of documents that needs the signature of Deputy Prime Minister. (SA5,
Jia Fei) Even if our Deputy Prime Minister did not commit any crime, his reputation has
been badly damaged and maybe some of the citizen may lost faith with our Deputy Prime
Minister due to rumors. (A, Jia Fei) Trust is like a paper, once it's crumpled, it cant be
perfect anymore. When foreign country study about the news in Malaysia, they will know our
Prime Minister involve in crime case even if its only under investigation, no matter what
outcome may be, the image of Malaysia will still be affected. (A, Jia Fei, Chee Hau)
Foreign investor has no confident in investing in Malaysia due to the politic is not stable,
foreign traveller will not choose Malaysia as a getaway and foreign student will not choose
Malaysia as a place to further their study. All these will lead to a depreciation in Malaysia
Ringgit due to lack of demand for RM. (A, Jia Fei, Ming Lie)
When Malaysia Ringgit is depreciated, it will have an impact on Malaysias economy.
(A, Jia Fei) Our income for export has decreased and our cost for import has increased, this
will lead to unemployment due to many company reduce employee to cut cost. (SA6, Jia Fei)
When unemployment rate increase, crime rate increase too. (A, Jia Fei) Thus, it is not safe
for citizen to go out, they will only stay at home. (A, Ming Lie) Economy will undergo
recursion when citizen is not spending money, the parents will not willing to send their
children for expensive education. (REF, Yet Leng) In a long run, Malaysia will lack of
human capital such as professional/skillful workers. This is bad for our country. To conclude,
people can spread rumors and ruin reputations just for funs, there are chain effects and
probably destroy a persons life and yours too just because you used your freedom of speech
irresponsibly. (A, Jia Fei, Chee Hau)
Based on the above justifications, if freedom of expression in social media in
Malaysia must be guaranteed, it is likely more or less taking risks that you will not know how
big the impact and effects on our country. In this case, we can see that freedom of expression
is important but with some limitations to avoid the negative effects on our country as well as
the citizens. The freedom that granted should be used wisely in terms of sharing the facts that
could help to gain knowledges and to update the citizens on what is happening in our country
from time to time instead of spreading rumors or giving false information to the citizen that
might leads to chaos occur. As a conclusion, absolute freedom of expression should not be
guaranteed in social media in Malaysia. (CR, Yet Leng, Ming Lie, Chee Hau, Jia Fei)

References
Should we have an absolute freedom of speech. (2011).
Retrieved July 28, 2015 from
http://www.theage.com.au/it-pro/should-we-have-an-absolute-freedom-ofspeech-20110325-1c9x1.html
Idea digital freedoms project. (n.d.). Freedom of Expression.

Retrieved July 28, 2015 from


http://digitalfreedoms.idebate.org/digitalfreedoms/freedom-ofexpression#link-2
Index the voice of free expression. (2013). Why is access to freedom of expression is
important.
Retrieved July 28, 2015 from
https://www.indexoncensorship.org/2013/03/why-is-access-to-freedom-ofexpression-important/
Laws of Malaysia. (Act 15, Sedition Act 1948)
Retrieved August 1, 2015, from
http://www.agc.gov.my/Akta/Vol.%201/Act%2015.pdf
Mong Palatino. (2015). Malaysia Strengthens Sedition Act. The Diplomat Article.
Retrieved August 1, 2015, from
http://thediplomat.com/2015/04/malaysia-strengthens-sedition-act/
Paul Tait. (2015). Malaysia toughens sedition law to include online media ban,
mandatory jail. Reuters Article.
Retrieved August 1, 2015, from
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/10/us-malaysia-lawmaking-seditionidUSKBN0N10AD20150410
Ong Kar Jin. (n.d.). Contained Chaos: May 13, 1969 racial riot, a form of directed
violence.
Retrieved August 1, 2015, from
https://www.academia.edu/13008616/Contained_Chaos_May_13_1969_racial
_riots_a_form_of_directed_violence
Farik Zolkepli, Mazwin Nik Anis. (2015). Ex-DPM will not be arrested. The Star
Online, Nation.
Retrieved August 1, 2015 from
http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Nation/2015/07/31/ExDPM-will-not-bearrested-Zahid-Stop-spreading-malicious-lie

Você também pode gostar