PARLIAMENT If T he Malaysian Insider had to be taken to court before being blocked, how would the government block other bad websites, Communications and Multimedia Minister Salleh Said Keruak asked today.

"If we have wait for them to be sentenced before taking action (what about the other) websites that are involved in lewd things like porn?" Salleh asked in the Dewan Rakyat.

He was responding to Hanipa Maidin (Amanah-Sepang) who said it was not right for the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission to block TMI if the online portal had not been declared guilty of wrongdoing in court.

However, Salleh said, the commission has a right under Section 233 of the MCMC Act to control web content to ensure that it is good for society.

"The right to free speech is important, but the right to ruin the government is not," he said.

He also reiterated that TMI had been blocked for an article quoting unnamed sources that could potentially confuse the people, and denied causing it to shut down.

"It closed due to commercial reasons as TMI itself said."

When met by reporters in the Parliament lobby later, Salleh said besides porn sites, the government also can't risk waiting for a website to be taken to court first because of other dangerous sites, such as those promoting terrorism.

TMI shut down on March 14, about three weeks after the MCMC blocked access to it, due to an article on Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.