The Malaysian government is being criticised for interrogating one of the country's top bloggers.
Raja Petra Kamarudin was reportedly questioned by Malaysian police for eight hours over comments on his website Malaysia Today.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists called on the government to stop their harassment of Mr Raja Petra.
He said he was questioned about reader comments posted on his Web site, rather than his articles on corruption among police and government officials.
'The bottom line is, what you post in the comments section may get me sent to jail under the Sedition Act,' he said.
The complaint against Mr Raja Petra came from the United Malays National Organisation, which leads the ruling coalition.
They called the postings an insult to Islam and a bid to stir racial tension.
Scathing Internet criticism has embarrassed Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's government several times this year, whether over complaints of corruption among senior officials or scurrilous talk about the private lives of others.
This week, a minister vowed to deploy the Sedition Act, which prescribes sentences of three years in prison and fines for offences, besides laws that allow detention without trial, against Web writers of comments that disparage Islam or the king.
Opposition figure Anwar Ibrahim, whose aide Nathaniel Tan was detained by police last week over Web site comments linking a deputy minister to corruption, urged the government to fight crime and corruption, not bloggers.
'This talk about drafting laws is an unhealthy sign that the government has not yet come to terms with the new blogs,' said Lim Kit Siang, of the Chinese-dominated Democratic Action Party.
