"Malaysians thrive on rumours, especially when 90 percent of them seem to end up as facts in the end,'' says blogger Raja Petra at his site Malaysia Today, which urges contributions and comments from the public.

But Malaysian bloggers are indeed finding it the tough way that truth hurts - especially when the toes of powers-that-be are tread upon.

Mack Zulkifli who runs a new weblog called brandmalaysia is the latest victim of harassment by Malaysian authorities who certainly are not fans of this Internet medium where ordinary people can comment on current events using personal or collective websites.

Zulkifli's weblog, which receives about 2,000 to 3,000 hits a day, might seem pretty harmless in the present trend of citizen journalism - where professionals and gifted amateurs are partners.

But this form of participatory journalism that puts the on-line reader in the driver's seat in a country where print and broadcast mass media have long been under the thumb of the state, seems to be threatening the Malaysian government.

House visit

On March 14, the weblog owner was visited by a four-member team in his house in the Kuala Lumpur suburb of Subang Jaya.

Zulkifli told the Bangkok-based media freedom group Southeast Asia Press Alliance (Seapa), two police officers and two unidentified government officials asked him to help them ''understand the latest development of weblogs''.

The blogger then spent the next three hours answering questions about blogs and how their contents can be controlled. He told Seapa he was also asked about his motivations for maintaining his site when he appeared to derive no income from it.

On the same day Zulkifli was questioned, in Penang island, Ali Bukhari Amir of the Science University of Malaysia was hauled before a university investigative committee and questioned about his blog and links with the Federal Public Students Movement.

According to the on-line news portal Malaysiakini, Ali was urged by the committee to use his writing talents to support the government. The student had been questioned previously in December 2004 about articles he wrote for a university newspaper and an opposition party publication.

Malaysiakini, too, has had its fair share of trouble with the Malaysian government.

In January 2003, responding to a complaint from the youth wing of the ruling United Malays National Party (Umno), police from a special ''computer crimes'' department entered the Malaysiakini offices in Kuala Lumpur, interrogated several journalists present, and seized all of the company's computers.

Police officers told the staff that the computers would be held and searched for evidence in a possible sedition case to be brought against the on-line newspaper.

The web site of Malaysiakini, however, started operating later that evening after police officers left its premises.

Targetting new bloggers

''Since 2003 with Malaysiakini, Internet policing in Malaysia has become worrisome,'' Seapa director Kulachada Chaipipat told IPS.

''Now bloggers seem to be the next target and things could get much worse,'' added Kulachada.

Though the situation in predominantly Muslim Malaysia cannot be compared to other Islamic countries like Iran where the regime censors thousands of websites it considers ''non-Islamic'' and harasses and imprisons online journalists and bloggers, nonetheless a disturbing trend seems to be emerging.

In February, blogger Jeff Ooi was hauled in for questioning by police who were investigating an allegedly contentious comment posted months ago on his weblog, Screenshots. It related to ''civilization Islam'' (or 'Islam Hadhari'), an approach to the religion currently being heavily promoted by Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

Although the comment had been posted last October, a police report on the issue ironically was lodged four months later. The comment claimed it was contradictory for Premier Abdullah to promote 'Islam Hadhari' when money politics was rampant in his ruling Umno party.

This sparked off prominent coverage in the Bahasa Malaysia dailies, with the mass-circulation Berita Harian giving the issue front-page treatment for four days. Among the claims made were that the comment had the potential to incite ''disharmony'' in society, and that Ooi had allowed the reader to use offensive language.

Offers freedom of expression

Ooi received a police summons issued under the Penal Code that ''prohibits actions or conduct that could cause disharmony in society''. He was subsequently told to give a statement at a police station and was questioned for two hours.

''Without the mainstream media offering space for ordinary Malaysians of course they'll turn to weblogs. It offers them complete freedom of expression,'' said Seapa's Kulachada.

But she warned that the alternate form of expression could be removed and if it happened the authorities would be reneging on a promise made by former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad ''to never censor the Internet'' in his quest to make Malaysia a global on-line multi-media hub.

''Bloggers and independent online news sites like Malaysiakini have been testing the government's sincerity and pushing the limits of what they can freely report and say over the Internet,'' said Kulachada. ''Now the Malaysian authorities appear to be pushing back, and looking to make examples of bloggers.''