January 06, 2009 00:05 AM

Cyber Court For Malaysia?

MARANG, Jan 5 (Bernama) -- Malaysia may need a "cyber court" to deal with cyber crimes in view of the increasing number of such cases lately, said Energy, Water and Communications Minister Datuk Shaziman Abu Mansor.

He said that the ministry had submitted over 30 cases to the Attorney-General's Chambers in the past three years.

"If in future if we cannot cope anymore due to too many cases, we may need to have a cyber court," he told reporters after launching a community broadband centre in Kampung Merchang here.

On a newsreport that a weblog had published contents found to be offensive, in particular comments relating to Prophet Muhammad and Islam, Shaziman said, the police were still investigating.

According to the report, the offending article was published in a blog using the name of a Malay woman.

The woman had denied her involvement.

Meanwhile, Shaziman said broadband penetration rate in the country currently stood at 18 per cent for each 100 households.

"For Terengganu, the rate is 8.8 per cent, which is a drastic increase compared to 0.7 per cent in 2005," he said.

He added that the government had targeted to increase the nationwide penetration rate to 50 per cent by next year to enhance IT literacy among the society.

He also said that 1,268 communication towers would be built throughout the country to expand cellular phone coverage from 92 per cent at the moment to 97 per cent by 2010.

"Of the total, 98 towers will be built in Terengganu," he said.

-- BERNAMA

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