Book cover of Rahsia ArqamPETALING JAYA, 18 Dec 2008: Copies of a book examining the Al-Arqam sect were confiscated by Home Ministry officials on four different occasions, beginning May 2006. Yet, until today, the status of the book remains unclear. According to PTS Publications general manager Fauzul Na’im Ishak, whose company publishes the title, there […]
censorship
An inconvenient thought
(© Jerome Bei / sxc.hu) IN Ray Bradbury’s 1953 dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 (not to be mistaken with Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 911), fire fighters are tasked with starting fires, not putting them out. More specifically, fire fighters are agents of the state charged with the burning of books. The destruction of knowledge. Books that would […]
Farish Noor’s book under investigation
Book cover of From Majapahit to Putrajaya PETALING JAYA, 27 Nov 2008: A leading bookstore in Kuala Lumpur has stopped selling a book by Malaysian public intellectual Dr Farish Noor, pending an investigation by the Home Ministry. The entire stock of the book, From Majapahit to Putrajaya, was confiscated from Kinokuniya’s KLCC outlet on 15 […]
CIJ submits memo on press freedom to Pakatan MPs
(second from right) Gayathry explaining CIJ’s memorandum to Parti Keadilan Rakyat’s vice-president Azmin Ali. Looking on are (from left) Santiago, Sivarasa and (right) Khalid. KUALA LUMPUR, 13 Nov 2008: The Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ) has submitted a memorandum to demand for greater press freedom and protection of media workers to Members of Parliament (MPs) […]
The bane of book banning
THE day Norani Othman found out her book was banned by the Malaysian government, she knew she had “arrived” as a scholarly writer. The Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia sociology professor had not expected that Muslim Women and the Challenge of Islamic Extremism — the book she contributed chapters to and edited — would be banned, but […]
