"In order for us to instil good morals and values in our people, we have to stop importing films that are not appropriate for our country....We imposed the ban after viewing thousands of titles over the last five months." - Shaari Mohamad Noor
"hold on to good values and preserve the family institution" - Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad
Malaysia is known to have one of the toughest censorship laws. The Film Censorship board of Malaysia which is under the control of Malaysian home office, pay special attention to nudity, sex, profanity, violence and sensitive religious content in films and television production. Censorship can be in books, newspaper, films, internet content, musicians, and content which is pornographic.
According to Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.com), it is said that Malaysia has quiet a reasonable level of freedom of speech. Malaysia was graded 4 points out of 7, with 1 being most free and 1 having the least freedom. Malaysia was also ranked 124th in World Wide Press Freedom index by the Reporters Without Borders. Although Malaysia has a flexible levels of freedom of speech its censorship board is strong.
Banned Products
Movies such as Zoolander (2001) is banned because of a plot line in which an assassination attempt is made on the Malaysian prime minister.
The Prince of Egypt (1998) was initially banned so as not to offend the country's majority Muslim population. The reason given by chairman of the Film Censorship Board was: "We found it insensitive for religious and moral reasons. Because of the many races in Malaysia, religion is a very sensitive issue." It was passed for VCD and DVD release by Berjaya HVN
Many books such as the indonesian version of Charles Darwin's origin of Species, the Iban bible, The Vagina Monologues, and many more are banned for sale and distribution in Malaysia. You will be able to find a list of vast banned items on wikipedia.
It has also come to concern that strict censorship laws should be applied on the internet. According to Wikipedia Encyclopedia. Deputy Science and Technology Minister Kong Cho Ha has announced that all Malaysian news blogs will have to be register with the Ministry of Information. He justified this by stating the law was necessary to dissuade bloggers from promoting disorder in Malaysia’s multi-ethnic society.
Reference (www.wikipedia.com)
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