Malaysia’s political system has been described as “electoral” authoritari-
anism (Schedler 2006) where the BN “has refrained from grossly rigging or
stealing elections, instead perpetuating its dominance through subtler strata-
gems for more than three decades” (Case 2006: 312). One of these strata-
gems has been to restrict freedoms of the press, where the mainstream me-
dia in Malaysia is “shackled” (Mohd Azizuddin 2005) and subject to “strin-
gent controls” (Abbott 2011a: 16). However, Prime Minister Mahathir’s
decision in 1996 not to regulate or censor the Internet means the strict laws
applied to the print media were less relevant to those who produced news
and views online. While the online media in Malaysia is not exempt from
legal pressure (sedition and defamation charges have still been used to intim-
idate those who criticise the regime through the Internet), Malaysia’s media
has largely been seen as a free and vibrant online space clearly distinct from
the restricted, pro-government mainstream media (Mustafa K. Anuar 2005;
Jun-E Tan and Zawawi Ibrahim 2008; Mohd Azizuddin 2005).