“Bloggers can sue PM Abdullah, NST”

Here ye, all lawyers on board. We need your advice. Can we, as blogger citizens of Malaysia, take a class action againt Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi or the NST for causing us inconveniences as well as a chilling effect?Any lawyers out there willing to represent us? Coz, I, for one am willing to test the waters. How about you?

“Inconveniences”. Yes, admit it – some of us had sleepless nights. “Chilling effect”. Yes, some freezed to the bones and may not blog again about politics. This will be evidenced by the increasing number of blogs on topics such as cooking, gardening, and IT gadgets as opposed to blogs that challenge the status quo.

In walkwith us:

“Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi can be cited for contempt of court and for using Executive power to influence the Judiciary over NSTP’s defamation suit against Jeff Ooi and Rocky”.

“Abdullah’s offending statements were widely carried by Malaysia’s national news agency, Bernama, and the country’s largest circulation newspaper, The Star, on January 24″.

The NST as we all know has sued our two bloggers friends, bringing us all down (or up) as well. The law suit has in a way inconvenience us, for some of us are extra careful of the way we speak, blog or even think!

Such class action is not unfamiliar in Asia.

In the Philippines, a group of journalists – 43 reporters, columnists, editors and publishers – filed a class action suit against the president’s husband for suing them.

The class action suit, filed on behalf of the press, are other journalists and media organisations, Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility, Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism and “The Daily Tribune”.

The class suit wants P15 million (approx. US$305,630) in damages for the inconveniences Arroyo’s libel suits have allegedly caused as well as their chilling effect on press freedom.