''Malaysia Today'' is a
Malaysia
Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...
n news
blog
A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...
founded in August 2004.
Founding
''Malaysia Today'' was launched about two weeks before
Anwar Ibrahim's release from
prison
A prison, also known as a jail, gaol, penitentiary, detention center, correction center, correctional facility, or remand center, is a facility where Prisoner, people are Imprisonment, imprisoned under the authority of the State (polity), state ...
on 2 September 2004. Once
Deputy Prime Minister
A deputy prime minister or vice prime minister is, in some countries, a Minister (government), government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to th ...
Anwar fell from grace after his action during the
1997 Asian financial crisis
The 1997 Asian financial crisis gripped much of East Asia, East and Southeast Asia during the late 1990s. The crisis began in Thailand in July 1997 before spreading to several other countries with a ripple effect, raising fears of a worldwide eco ...
and was sacked by then
Prime Minister
A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...
Mahathir Mohamad
Mahathir bin Mohamad (; ; born 10 July 1925) is a Malaysian politician, author and doctor who was respectively the fourth and seventh Prime Minister of Malaysia, prime minister of Malaysia from 1981 to 2003 and from 2018 to 2020. He was the ...
. Raja Petra, the webmaster of the Free Anwar Campaign website, decided to create ''Malaysia Today'' as part of a "Free Malaysia" campaign shortly before Anwar's release. Raja Petra took credit for predicting that Anwar would be released several weeks before it occurred.
Censorship by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission
On 27 August 2008, the Malaysian government blocked the ''Malaysia Today'' website, allegedly in response to unspecified reader comments related to a 16 January 2008 article.
The censorship was lifted on 12 September 2008, but Raja Petra Kamaruddin was arrested under the ISA (Internal Security Act) on the same day. He was freed on November 7, 2008, after Shah Alam city High Court Justice Syed Ahmad Helmy Syed Ahmad granted his habeas corpus petition, ruling that his 12 September detention was illegal.
After he was freed, Raja Petra went into exile. The editorial stance of the ''Malaysia Today'' blog shifted from an anti-Barisan Nasional stance to one that actively defended the ruling regime while attacking the opposition. This change led to a sharp decline in credibility and readership, with many questioning the reasons behind his U-turn.
See also
*
Malaysiakini
''Malaysiakini'' (English: "Malaysia Now") is an online news portal in Malaysia which was established in 1999. It is published in Malay, English, Chinese and Tamil, and is among the most read news portals in Malaysia.
At the time of its ...
*
The Malaysian Insider
''The Malaysian Insider'' (also known as ''TMI'', ''The Insider'', or ''Malay Ins Ins'') was a Malaysian bilingual news site. During its peak, it ranked consistently as one of the country's 100 most popular websites. In June 2009, Alexa rank ...
References
External links
* {{official, http://www.malaysia-today.net/
Malaysian political websites
Malaysian political blogs
Malaysian blogs