No to a Police State in Blogosphere

In Solidarity with Nathaniel Tan

Nathaniel Tan, a 26 year old dedicated blogger, a Harvard University alumnus and an aide to Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has been arrested under the Section 8 of the Official Secrets Act (OSA) over allegations that he had documents linked to Deputy Internal Security Minister Datuk Johari Baharom’s alleged involvement in corruption.

The OSA in its current form allows for a government to administer this country covertly and in defiance of the accountability and transparency that is crucial to democratic process. This impacts on all our lives in more ways that we can begin to understand as the government is given a means to thwart legitimate public interest by the forced suppression of material and relevant information.

To demonstrate our solidarity with Nathaniel who has been dealt with great injustice, to show our steadfast refusal to let the Government curb the democratisation impact of blogs and the Internet, and to voice our displeasure at the OSA, we are organising a forum with invited speakers from across the civil society with details as follows:

Date: 19 June 2007 (Thursday)

Time: 7.30pm

Venue: KL & Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall

The Panel of Distinguished Speakers:

l Nathaniel Tan, Blogger & Aide to PKR Advisor*

l Lim Guan Eng, Secretary-General of DAP

l Jeff Ooi, Protem Vice-President, All Blog Malaysia

l Harris Ibrahim, Lawyer & Founder of The People's Parliament

l Nurul Izzah Anwar, Special Assistant to PKR Advisor

l Tony Pua, Economic Advisor to DAP Secretary-General

Chairperson: Soon Li Tsin, Journalist & Blogger

* We will be inviting Nathaniel to speak to us and relay his experiences at the Forum should he be released from remand on Tuesday, 17th July or before.

Admission is Free; Bring Friends