Deputy Communications and Multimedia Minister Jailani Johari said today he was not aware of regulators blocking access to pro-Pakatan Facebook pages.

Jailani said his ministry was neutral and would assist in censoring the Internet if people complained.

However, he said, he does not know whether the pro-Pakatan Chinese language Facebook page ‘We Fully Support Pakatan (DAP)’ was being blocked.

The Facebook page with more than half-a-million fans has been inaccessible from Malaysia since yesterday.

After the unavailability of several Chinese-langauge pages which were popular with netizens during the 13th general election, netizens today reported that a Malay language pro-Pakatan page, ‘Otai Reformasi II’, which has 68,000 followers, had also become unaccessible.

At present at least six such pages have been reported inacessible.

"I don't know if action has been taken by respective agencies.

"But those creating annoying statements and whatnot on the Internet, we can always lodge a complaint to Facebook or to (the local regulator) MCMC and we can always assist," Jailani told reporters at the second International Conference on Broadcast Training (ICBT) in Kuala Lumpur.

He noted that in the past MCMC has helped Islamic Affairs Department (Jakim) and the police to block offensive websites, as one of the measures to prevent the abuse of the ‘free’ Internet.

When pressed again on the blocked Pakatan websites, which Perak DAP economic bureau chief Chong Zemin has since complained about, Jailani said he had not been briefed on this.

'Even the police have no clue'

"I have no idea... this morning even the police have made a statement that they have no clue about this issue," he said.

Jailani said that blocking access to a website was only one of MCMC's options. This was also usually done only after due investigation.

"To assist in blocking a website is one of the processes we can do, but there are other things...," he said without elaborating.

Jailani (left) said MCMC's standard operating procedure (SOP) for this would include seeking expert advice from relevant parties via a committee.

He stressed that when censorship happens, it was aimed at grooming netizens to be more responsible and disciplined over Internet postings.

Jailani was speaking to reporters after officiating the second ICBT, where 40 experts from the broadcasting industry have come together to find ways to keep up with a dynamic new social media.

In his keynote address, Jailani said that Malaysia also struggled with this issue. From the third quarter of this year, many free-to-air TV stations would be going digital. Not only would HDTV make entertainment more "entrancing", the deputy minister said it would also convey messages more effectively.

"The clear portrayal of events would help convince the viewer and help eliminate confusion in the minds of the public," Jailani noted.

He added that audiences will be more proactive in seeking information and have the ability to create space for social and cultural change.