Wednesday, July 07, 2010



No freedom of speech in Malaysia

Zunar is a Malaysian cartoonist. He produces fairly standard political cartoons criticising government corruption and misbehaviour. Those cartoons have now been banned on the grounds that they "can influence the people to revolt against the leaders and government policies". Stripped of the authoritarian hysteria, that means that they might cause people to think less of the government and senior politicians. And in a supposedly free and democratic society whose constitution affirms the freedom of speech, that is apparently something the government cannot permit.