Censorship and Ethics in Malaysia free essay sample

For example the issue of race, religion or the monarchies of the country are subjects that lead to provocation amongst the people of the country. It is stated in article 10-4 in the Federal Constitution of Malaysia that â€Å"Parliament may pass law prohibiting the questioning of any matter, right, status, position, privilege, sovereignty or prerogative established or protected by the provisions of part 3, Article 152, 153 or 181 otherwise than in relation to the implementation thereof as may be specified in such law†. Part 3 refers to the citizenship, article 152 refers to the national language, article 153 refers to the reservation of quotas in respect of services, permits, and etc for Malays and natives of any of the States of Sabah and Sarawak and article 181 refers to the saving for the rulers’ sovereignty. This act clearly states no one should converse or debate about the given matter above that could well be imposing to the interest of the Nation’s security or the Malaysian government. With the emergence of the media that was invented for a long period, we have been constantly striving to understand the effects of media and how it plays a role in the behavior of the people receiving the information. The media had always been given conflicting views on whether it is building up the qualities of human life or either destroying it by creating social disorders. In the Malaysian media context, censorship has always been a rising issue in the process of adapting to a modern knowledge based economy and keeping at par with other international media. Malaysia has always practiced those stringent forms of media censorship banning over hundreds of movies, songs, television, print and other media sources that contains an explicit or derogatory contents that is contrary to upholding morality which is expected in the local society. There are countless of media sources in forms of books, television, films, music and videos from around the world that penetrates through our Malaysian media. Most of which undergoes the process of monitoring and filtering to check that it is suitable for the local content and does not cross the boundaries of the local standards. The possession or an unlicensed use of a printing press is deemed illegal under the Printing Presses and Publications Act of 1984, therefore journalists who are reporting ‘sensitive’ issues are always given guidelines before hand to avoid any unwanted impressions that could cause a stir. Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar, the â€Å"Ex-Malaysian Home Minister said that in 2003 the guidelines that concerns censorship that was drawn up in 1993, underwent through a process of restudying due to some of the rules being inapplicable to current terms as he believes that it would create a better nation in this country. The censorship guidelines of Malaysian media has axed out many explicit contents relating to nudity and violence that could contribute towards the behavior of the people in the country. For example movies that has nude scene that is deemed â€Å"too explicit† would be removed from its contents. There are many explicit contents that could send out a negative message that influences the younger generation of this country therefore the raise for awareness in the standards of morality should be taken into a serious consideration as it could lead to a more jeopardizing act such as crime and violence that could abrupt the peace that the country upholds. A theory is brought up that there is a correlation between criminal offenders and the explicit content shown on television such as obscenity and violence. There are many areas that are under the supervision of the media control in areas of television, printed media, films and cinema, internet, and music. All of these are given a strict sanction that eliminates the undesired or inappropriate contents of the media. The censors blocks out areas that touches the subject of nudity, sex, profanity, violence and sensitive issues regarding of religious themes in films. The internet however was imposed a very lax and lenient rule compared to the other media branches as it was uncensored and civil liberties was assured until the 11th of June 2011when the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission issued a letter to all Malaysian ISPs and blocked several websites which includes several file-hosting website and also peer to peer traffic sites. They have been allegedly breaching the code Section 41 of the Copyright Act 1987, involves dealing with pirated contents. The Malaysian government nonetheless has a very tringent rule over the printing presses and the publication of the country. Printing presses and publication companies have to abide to the Malaysian statue, Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984 which administers publication and all usage of printing presses and all printing presses require a license granted by the Home Affairs Minister, renewed every year. 56 publications including the Indonesian translation of â€Å"Charles Darwi n’s on the Origin of Species† were banned by the Internal Security Ministry. In the areas of Films and cinema, a Malaysian government ministry called the Film Censorship Board of Malaysia was established to inspect films that penetrate into the Malaysian market. It is under the Film Censorship Act and was revised in 2002 under an updated version of the Act which states that any film that is to be screened in the country was to be licensed by the Board therefore allowing not one to view any film that has not been legalized or viewed by the Board. It also states that the Act bans the possession or screening of any subject in terms of pornographic and provocative contents. The act of doing so would subject the screener of the films in those contexts to be fined or even imprisonment for that matter. The Board observes the uncensored films and decides whether its content was appropriate for the people of Malaysia. Only after the Board is satisfied that the film complements the rules then only will the film receives the approval for its release. The materials censored by Censorship Board are inclusive of trailers, posters, advertisements and the film itself. There are hundreds of titles of films that passes through the Malaysian market and these films would be viewed and the censors would pay attention to the details such as profanity, obscenity, violence and films that touch sensitive issues that could well be provocative. These parts are either axed out from the movie or the movie itself is completely banned if the board found its content too inappropriate for Malaysian audiences. There are a lot of numbers of films from the western media that was censored or banned from the Malaysian market due to its inappropriate content but some would later be released censored on optical media such as in DVD or Blue- Ray formats. Some of these titles includes movies like â€Å"Piranha 3D, Borat: the cultural learnings of America, Paranormal Activities† and so on due to its heavy explicit contents that contains obscenity and violence. Censorship is a growing issue in Malaysia where many musicians also have been banned from performing in relation to racial, moral and most popularly, religious concerns. There are numerous cases where musicians and performers are refrained from wearing inappropriate attires to censoring the music that they produce. For instance in 2003, American rock band Linkin Park was told to refrain from wearing shorts while performing and singer Mariah Carey was asked to cover up during her stage performances. Malaysian organizers of the Pussycat Dolls concert were also fined for infringement of the decency laws. In August 2008, Canadian rock singer Avril Lavigne faces a threat of cancellation urged by the country’s opposition party, PAS as her performance was deemed to provocative for the youth of the country. Eventually the concert went on scheduled with a critical success. In 2012, Erykah Badu, an artist from the United States was denied permission to perform in Malaysia hence cancelling her concert as it was found that she had tattooed the word Allah on a part of her body. In terms of songs, there are hundreds of songs over the years that was refrained from air play or censored in its content then only allowing it to be broadcast to the mainstream Malaysian media as these songs were considered unsuitable for broadcasting on its radio and television stations. For example the song â€Å"Born this way† by American Pop artist Lady Gaga was banned from its broadcast due to its controversial lyrics that portrays the liberties of sexuality such as the issue of being gay,lesbian or bisexual which is considered as ‘taboo’ in the general Malaysian context. The question of censorship however was quite contradicting when it comes to the â€Å"K-pop† phenomenon that is set quite ablaze in Malaysia with performance of artist such as Wonder Girls who were part of MTV World Stage Live In Malaysia 2010 The appeal of â€Å"K-pop† lies in the influence of the youths these days towards the interest of fashion . The phenomenon also consists of inappropriate attired boys and girls group that could sent out subliminal messages to the younger generation of Malaysia. Censorship is always a growing issue in Malaysia. Some condone by the rule of censorship to the utmost level due to respecting the religious and morality values of the country as it also brought up to the attention of some, that the censorship of a certain areas that were considered petty or trivial is considered very â€Å"closed minded† and inconvenience to those who preached on civil liberties.