Defamation and libel can be described as an injury to the reputation or character of someone resulting from false statements. Defamation is an attack, albeit false and, or malicious on one's good name. It exposes or subjects one to odium, hatred, contempt, ridicule, or disgrace, or causes one to be shunned or avoided.

In short, defamation/libel can be described as words - written or spoken - tending to lower an individual or organisation in the estimation of right-thinking members of society.

Our laws protect every citizen from harm to their reputation by false and derogatory remarks. It is enshrined that every citizen can seek redress if they believed that they have been defamed. Over the years, many media organisations have found this out the hard way. Sloppy and even malicious reporting have resulted in payouts and dents to the organisations' reputation and credibility.

Some years ago, media organisations, journalist unions and non-government organisatisations rallied together to fight multi-million ringgit awards given by the courts in defamation cases. The fight then was not so much against being sued or being found guilty of defamation, because no one including the media can be above the law, but against the ridiculously high awards.

The defamation suit filed last week by The New Straits Times Press (NSTP) and several of its executives against two bloggers on the internet has once again brought the issue to the fore, but with a twist.

The blogging community and even some NGOs have labelled it as an attempt to curb freedom of expression over the internet. Some have even described it as going against the government's guarantee of no censorship on the internet.

They are wrong.

It is the message, not the medium, that is the issue here.

Were the articles/postings that appeared in the two blogs defamatory? The plaintiffs have to prove to the court that they were.

If they are proven to be defamatory, they would be defamatory whether they appeared over the internet, published in newspapers or broadcast over radio and TV. And if they were not defamatory, they were not, regardless of the medium they appeared in.

It is a fallacy to assume that defamation laws don't operate in cyberspace just because the government said it would not exercise censorship. And it would be dangerous.

Non censorship is not a licence to break the laws of the country. The internet and blogging have empowered ordinary citizens to express themselves. Those of us who value the power we now have, must do our utmost to ensure it is not abused.

Yes, bloggers should unite, but unite against those who misuse the blogs because they are the real threat to the future of blogging.

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