A 26-year-old blogger in Kuala Lumpur named Nathaniel Tan (jelas.info, suarakeadilan.com, bangkit.net) has been arrested for posting political parody content on the internet.
Supporters are posting the image shown at left on their blogs: Link. Tan is considered a prominent online voice in Malaysia. He was reportedly first detained under an "Official Secrets Act," then later under an "Internal Securities Act" for charges including "publishing lies on the Internet" and alleged possession of classified official documents (thanks Bash, Sean Bonner).
Reader comment: John Lee says,
Thank you so much for writing about Nat on boingboing. Those of us in Malaysia who are close to Nat really appreciate it.
However, your post contained one error – Nat was not detained for a parody (that parody was posted by his boss, the information chief of a local political party). He was detained for investigation into a comment posted on his blog some months back, alleging that a particular minister was corrupt.
By the way, as a colleague of Nat's, I personally know the work he has been doing, which has mainly been to get Malaysians, especially younger ones, involved in standing up for their rights and for their country. I think that considering the ludicrous grounds they are holding him for, this is purely an attempt to intimidate those who might be considering making a difference in some small way.
If you're interested, I have written a longer piece on it here: Link.
UPDATE: 07-17-07 – RSF reports "Blogger Nathaniel Tan, a member of the opposition Justice Party (PKR), was freed this afternoon after being held for four days."
