Whats the difference between libel, defamation and sedition?

Posted on By Reedz

Well, you would have learned the differences if you attended the talk on “Bloggers’ Rights and Responsibilities & the other legal issues on the use of Social Media in Brunei Darussalam” which was conducted by the AGC this afternoon. For those who missed it, the slides from the talk will be available online soon. Stay tuned 🙂

From Brunei Times:

IN THE last few years, Bruneians have taken to blogs to showcase their pictures, express their opinions and share their insights on daily life in Brunei. Setting up a blog and writing a blog post takes mere minutes, but the consequences of a biased or even a badly written blog post can easily ruin a blogger’s reputation or even see them slapped with a lawsuit in the process. Read more…

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Open mic day at the AGC 😀

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Rahayu giving us a rundown on the Internet Code of Practice

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Me ole colleague from MIPR 🙂

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Sedition Act… Heavy stuff…

Under the Sedition Act (Cap 24), a seditious intention is an intention to:

  • bring into hatred or contempt or to excite disaffection against ‘His Majesty the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam or the government;
  • to excite the country’s inhabitants to attempt to procure the alteration, otherwise than by lawful means, of any other matter in Brunei as by law established;
  • to bring into hatred or contempt or to excite disaffection against the administration of justice in the Sultanate;
  • to raise discontent or disaffection amongst the local inhabitants,
  • to promote feeling of and hostility between different classes of the population,
  • to directly or indirectly lower or adversely affect, or bring into derogation, the rights, status, position, discretion, powers, privileges, sovereignty or prerogatives of His Majesty, successors, consorts, or other members of the royal family.

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Smile ladies 😉

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Tiger, you smell someting is it?

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Gangsta not happy with some of the laws?

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Be careful what you post on the internet aaaa…

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Shahiran asking a rather thorny question 🙂

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Zul asking a question about Cyber-bullying

Comments (6)

  1. I wish I could have been there. Should be another one where we, as Government officers, can attend! I really wanted to go! 🙁

    1. Yeah I think the attendance would be much greater if it was held on a Friday or Sunday 🙂

  2. It was a fantastic talk indeed. Im getting rid of the blogs that I think would and could cause troubles to me.. some of our local bloggers (one in particular.. ) are very open with their discussion with their intentions of defaming and slandering other people. This is what you call cyber bullying.. but the sad thing is that nobody is taking any actions.. 🙁

    Hey Reedz, are you checking yours too?! If you remember correctly, if you're the host you are too liable for legal reprecussions… 🙂

    1. Tks for your comment Oh lala, I think u've inadvertently uncovered one of the issues which we did not cover during the talk, i.e. anonymous comments and how they stand with regard to the law. Also, if I remember correctly, as a "host" I am only liable if I edited the content of the comment in any way? I stand to be corrected on that. Another issue which comes to mind is, what if the offending content is part of an RSS feed from a third party which is displayed on your site? Are you also liable?

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    2. If no one is taking action, it may mean that no one has complained about it. I think there are too many blogs in the WWW that any blog can fly under the radar to the proper authorities. If you spot a blog that you think is illegal (according to the Broadcasting Act), then you should lodge a complaint. I'm unsure where, but the AGC or PMO might be a good place to start.

  3. Hey Reedz, I'm not pretty sure how to answer you on that last questions of yours. From my point of view (Well I'm not a lawyer myself), one are still liable if the "offending" contents came throught the RSS feeds from a third party. One can choose to ignore or delete the "offending" content from public viewing.. Well… lets asked Mr Lawyer (Jefri) himself shall we?? 🙂

    Tina, so far our local bloggers are still playing it safe (I think…) and oh thanks for your advise.. This internet laws are very complicated..

Comments are closed.