Is It True That Bloggers Are Rude And Immoral?

In this modern civilization, blogging has become the biggest phenomenon. People are no longer blogging about their own thing but they are mostly now take blogging as a serious matter and making big bucks out of it. In the January 2008 issue of KLue magazine (a lifestyle magazine), blogging was listed as the “8 trends of 2008”. It mentions that political blogs are in the limelight, updating the nation with the information they could never get through the mainstream media, creating a lot of controversy and table-talk-gossip along the way.

Blog is a short form of “web log”. It’s a website for people to share their thoughts and stories with the world. It’s usually maintained by a person with regular updates of posts, adding images and videos, and description of events.

Many people create blog as their platform of choice to express their thoughts and emotions through words, images and videos. In fact, most of them post their stories without realizing the consequences if their stories include negative elements such as racism issues, touch the sensitivity of the government and the country that would create chaos among the nation. In addition to that, if they got detected by the authority, it is no surprise they would be sent to trial or, even worst, sleeping behind bars for some time of period.

Many perceived bloggers are immoral. We all do want freedom of speech but does freedom means you can simply defame people? I supposed it does not mean that you can disrespect your own country through freedom of speech, right?

Let’s take the recent event hit our country and major mainstream media – Kickdefella’s blog post on upside down Jalur Gemilang titled “Nation in Distress”. I think it’s the most immoral and disrespectful action towards our country. Our Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi claimed the action as very immoral because Mr. Kickdefella himself influencing others to do the same thing. I was very surprised reading the post because it’s our 51st National Day celebration and there are still people disrespect their own country.

Sometimes, I do wonder myself why are these people don’t feel any shame for their wrongdoings. Are they smart enough to face the consequence?

There are editors and gatekeepers to protect the content of newspapers and magazines. They edit and approve the stories of the writers before it is being publish. Unlike blogs, there is no one to edit and approve their materials. He/she should know the ethics before publish something that might be sensitive towards certain people because you are not the only one reading it, the whole world would read it too. Imagine what will happen to our country if the world perceived Malaysia as a bad place to travel because of the bad administration portrayed by the bloggers. So, bloggers should not violate the rule of ethics.

From my point of view, it is not wrong to criticize and voice out our thoughts through blog but of course, there are limitations. If you have gone overboard, then it is unethical and very immoral.

Let’s take another example. Many bloggers showed their dissatisfaction in their blog post about the Selangor’s Minister to allow ten percent (10%) of the non-Bumiputera to register for Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM). From what I have read, many bloggers voicing it out their dissatisfaction in a very positive way. Unlike the post from a blogger named “Mavarique”, he criticized and using bad words in his post. Not only that, he even mentioned that even when the government open the doors for the non-Bumis, they would not have the interest to register in UiTM. I was very surprised to read his post. The word that he used was very racism and the images he uploaded were seen as very sensitive.

I see this matter as something that should not be touch by anyone. The government was the one who let the dogs out and made some bloggers went wild and responded very aggressive towards the issue. Sometimes I don’t see the blame should be putting fully on the bloggers because the government created the big issue and made the public went chaotic. As I mentioned earlier, voicing out is not a criminal but there are limitations that they have to follow.

Another example of blog would be Raja Petra’s website – Malaysia Today. He alleged Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak for being involved with the Altantuya murder case. The issue went big because the case of Altantuya was still on trial and suddenly the name of the high profile person was mentioned in the blog. He did not have any proof and later on, the cops went to Raja Petra’s house for investigation. Writing without any proof is unethical. It does consider as a very immoral act because it create problems to the country and not to forget, the whole nation.

Based on my experience, I have a friend who hates her friend so much up to the extend that she posted three posts and she alleged her friends on so many bad things that happen to her because of the friend. In the post, she humiliates her friend and made many people become skeptical of her. I think it is rude to humiliate a person in the blog and very unethical. After her post, many gave her comments about their disagreement of her way to humiliate a person to public. Even such small group would become separated just because of the words are mightier than the sword.

I would conclude that not all bloggers are immoral. There are some who blog just to make people angry but some are just blogging for their passion of writing. These immoral bloggers should learn the ethics of journalism so that they can think before they write. Don’t let one blogger to ruin the whole nation.

The End