Communications and Multimedia Minister Salleh Said Keruak has urged netizens to differentiate between truths, half-truths, innuendos and lies.

Netizens, he said, must not regard everything as opinions that they are free to espouse.

Salleh’s reminder comes after Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak similarly urged Internet users to differentiate between truths, half-truths, lies and opinion before forming their judgement.

“I concur with our prime minister’s recent blog post – that the Internet is a shared property owned collectively by all global citizens, and as such we have the responsibility not to misuse it,” said Salleh in his blog post last night.

Both freedom of speech and expressing one’s opinion, said Salleh, must be treated as a privilege, rather than an absolute right.

“And privileges, if abused, can sometimes be withdrawn,” he said.

It has been a week since The Malaysian Inside r ( TMI ) was blocked by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC). The news portal remains inaccessible on major telecommunications service providers.

Salleh had previously confirmed that among the reasons TMI was blocked was for an article it published on Najib and the 1MDB scandal.

'No absolute freedom of speech'

Meanwhile, stressing that there is no such thing as ‘absolute freedom of speech’, the minister pointed out how even the West has laws that regulate matters concerning slander, defamation, racism and sexism, among others.

Although exchanging ideas and opinions can contribute to learning, it must be done in a constructive, civil and mature manner, he said.

“Running someone down or the hurling of insults would be the opposite to all this. You would be considered uncouth not to observe proper rules of engagement.

“A problem arises when we hide behind freedom of speech and pretend that we merely seek to discuss and debate and then we disagree for the sake of disagreeing.

“Politics is all about perception, so the war of perception to be able to win the hearts and minds of the people intensifies as political disagreements escalate."

People, he said, cannot claim the moral high ground and say that their cause is virtuous when they are neither noble or virtuous in their methods.

“While freedom of speech may be considered a right, others also have the right to not suffer indignity and harassment due to the misuse of the Internet,” Salleh said.