“ Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it. ” - George Orwell, 1984

COMMENT Malaysians are used to Establishment personalities using wonderful euphemisms to describe bog standard tin pot practices that characterize countries abandoning their democratic principles. ‘Leakages’ for instance instead of ‘corruption’ was popular at one time, perhaps still is. We now have a new word when it comes to silencing the media, and that is ‘blockage’.

Access to The Malaysian Insider was blocked by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) because “MCMC reminds news portals not to spread or publish articles whose veracity has yet to be confirmed. This could invite confusion and cause unwanted situations,” which apparently is only an offence if you are anyone but Utusan Malaysia , ISMA.org or the numerous other media (including bloggers) who spread unverified information in support of the Umno Establishment.