Derived from the renowned multi-volume International Encyclopaedia of Laws, this analysis of media law in Malaysia surveys the massively altered and enlarged legal landscape traditionally encompassed in laws pertaining to freedom of expression and regulation of communications. Everywhere, a shift from mass media to mass self-communication has put enormous pressure on traditional law models. An introduction describing the main actors and salient aspects of media markets is followed by in-depth analyses of print media, radio and television broadcasting, the Internet, commercial communications, political advertising, concentration in media markets, and media regulation. Among the topics that arise for discussion are privacy, cultural policy, protection of minors, competition policy, access to digital gateways, protection of journalists’ sources, standardization and interoperability, and liability of intermediaries. Relevant case law is considered throughout, as are various ethical codes. A clear, comprehensive overview of media legislation, case law, and doctrine, presented from the practitioner’s point of view, this book is a valuable time-saving resource for all concerned with media and communication freedom. Lawyers representing parties with interests in Malaysia will welcome this very useful guide, and academics and researchers will appreciate its value in the study of comparative media law.

An indispensable survival guide for anyone in the media industry and the lawyers who serve them Especially now, in an age of instant global access through digital media, it is vitally important that journalists, authors and publishers, as well as the lawyers who serve them, be fully up on the laws governing media, worldwide. The ultimate resource for all the media content providers and purveyors, this fully updated and expanded Third Edition of the critically-acclaimed handbook offers you instant access to relevant libel and privacy laws and important legal rulings in the Europe, Asia, the Middle East and the Americas. It clearly and concisely explains risks publishers should know about prior to publication, steps they can take in order to avoid legal conflicts, and legal defences available to them in the event of a claim. Offers nation-by-nation summaries of libel and privacy law written by local practitioners in an easy-to-use reference format Expanded to include coverage of important emerging territories--Mexico, Israel, and Argentina, et al--as well as the latest libel and privacy rulings Features new chapters on emerging media markets--including Israel, Mexico, Argentina, Jordan, and others--as well as valuable updates to the Middle East section Provides updates on all major media markets and nations, along with coverage of changes in libel laws in key jurisdictions, including Australia, the UK, Hungary and Germany

This book analyses Malaysian media from the Jurgen Habermas’ perspectives of “the public sphere” especially from the aspects of bourgeois public sphere, mass press, the commercialisation of the press and refeudalisation. Malaysia has also faced all of those aspects. However, the highlight of this book is the process called defeudalisation. The 2008 General Election has shown that a new public sphere of cyberspace or the Internet and the mobile phone was accessed and utilised significantly and was enough to be used by the opposition in influencing the public to vote them. It became one of the major factors in determining the result of the election which is for the first time the opposition denying the ruling government a two third majority in the parliament and taking control or governing of five states. This new and influential public sphere in Malaysia has reversed the Habermas’ argument of refeudalisation to a process called “Defeudalisation”. However, in creating a civil public sphere for the people to deliberate views, this book also argues that Malaysia needs a responsible media or freedom of the press with social responsibility. This book urges Malaysia to accept the idea or theory of social responsibility and the concept of public journalism in the public sphere. This book is suitable for all interested–politicians, journalists, academia, and students of politics, media studies, laws and Malaysian studies–in the issues of media politics, free press and the role of media in Malaysian society as well as those interested in civil liberties, democratisation, political theory, media theory, law and Malaysian studies.

This book analyses the exponential growth of independent news portal (INPs) in Malaysia and discusses the extent of impacts generated from these portals in Malaysian electoral conduct especially during Malaysia's 12th and 13th general elections. The mainstream media in Malaysia has for decades been controlled by strict laws such as the Printing Presses and Publications Act (PPPA) and the Sedition Act, as well as self-censorship by print and broadcast journalists and editors. The rise of INP in Malaysia has challenged this government stranglehold, as well as making information available much faster than the mainstream media. The undeniable speed of the news posted on INP which often come with interactive contents are seen to have caused a remarkable increment on public’s options with regards to expressing their political views. Some of the INPs have also impressively taken up a notch by providing live streaming videos or interesting online visual news which indirectly unifies various sectors of pressure groups in providing options of circulating and disseminating information to the public. The interviews conducted for this book provide deeper insights from those producing news and at the same time provide a specific and thorough observation on political events including representatives of the Malaysian middle class, Opposition parties, youth and university students, NGOs and civil society movements. Chinnasamy investigates key questions relating to this shift in relation to media preference concerning on the mainstream and political landscape in Malaysia. Did the INP evolve new democratic movement in the country or induce a change in the way the government retains its power by increasing people's active engagement in political participation? Did any revolution in government-managed media landscape occur drastically? If so, how did they accomplish these changes? This book will fill the gap of existing research on how far have the INP empowered themselves to be the third force in fighting democratic movement in the country and how the ruling government continues seeing it as a contention, as foreseen by many experts in the industry.

This book analyses the mobilisation of race, rights and the law in Malaysia. It examines the Indian community in Malaysia, a quiet minority which consists of the former Indian Tamil plantation labour community and the urban Indian middle-class. The first part of the book explores the role played by British colonial laws and policies during the British colonial period in Malaya, from the 1890s to 1956, in the construction of an Indian "race" in Malaya, the racialization of labour laws and policies and labour-based mobilisation culminated in the 1940s. The second part investigates the mobilisation trends of the Indian community from 1957 (at the onset of Independent Malaya) to 2018. It shows a gradual shift in the Indian community from a "quiet minority" into a mass mobilising collective or social movement, known as the Hindu Rights Action Force (HINDRAF), in 2007. The author shows that activist lawyers and Indian mobilisers played a crucial part in organizing a civil disobedience strategy of framing grievances as political rights and using the law as a site of contention in order to claim legal rights through strategic litigation. Highly interdisciplinary in nature, this book will be of interest to scholars and researchers examining the role of the law and rights in areas such as sociolegal studies, law and society scholarship, law and the postcolonial, social movement studies, migration and labour studies, Asian law and Southeast Asian Studies.

Commentators on the media in Southeast Asia either emphasise with optimism the prospect for new media to provide possibilities for greater democratic discourse, or else, less optimistically, focus on the continuing ability of governments to exercise tight and sophisticated control of the media. This book explores these issues with reference to Malaysia and Singapore. It analyses how journalists monitor governments and cover elections, discussing what difference journalism makes; it examines citizen journalism, and the constraints on it, often self-imposed constraints; and it assesses how governments control the media, including outlining the development and current application of legal restrictions.

This timely book explores how the internet and social media have permanently altered the media landscape, enabling new actors to enter the marketplace, and changing the way that news is generated, published and consumed. It examines the importance of citizen journalists, whose newsgathering and publication activities have made them crucial to public discourse and central actors in the communication revolution. Investigating how the internet and social media have enabled citizen journalism to flourish, and what this means for the traditional institutional press, the public sphere, and media freedom, the book demonstrates how communication and legal theory are applied in practice.