Charter 2000-Aliran has warned that the suit against popular bloggers Jeff Ooi and Ahirudin 'Rocky' Attan would stifle public discussion by internet users.

"Bloggers may feel pressured to exercise more self-censorship and caution, and this might deter from exposing abuse of power and corruption at the highest levels," said the media watchdog in a statement yesterday.

The group warned that the suit could open the floodgates for even more attempts to control bloggers and webmasters though multimillion ringgit suits.

"This suit is also politically significant for advocates of freedom of expression especially since the space available for democratic discourse on the Internet is far wider than the shrinking space available to the mainstream media," added Charter 2000-Aliran.

"We call upon the government to institute reforms that strengthen democratic institutions and protect the right to free expression in the media, including the Internet," added the group.

Hearing this month

Ahirudin who runs Rocky's Bru is being sued by NSTP, its deputy chairperson Kalimullah Hassan, chief executive officer Syed Faisal Albar, group editor-in-chief Hishamudin Aun and former group editor Brendan Pereira.

Meanwhile, Ooi who operates Screenshots is being sued by NSTP, Kalimullah, Hishamuddin and Pereira.

The applicants are also seeking for an injunction and removal of various blog posts deemed defamatory. The hearing is set for Jan 25 and Jan 30 respectively.

In November 2006, Ahirudin and Jeff were embroiled in a controversy with NSTP when they revealed that a column in the New Straits Times on Oct 30 written by Pereira bore a strong resemblance in style and structure to a column by Mitch Albom in the Detroit Free Press of Sept 10, 2006.

The NSTP later announced that Pereira will end his term of service as group editor of NST on Dec 31 and rejected the allegations of plagiarism.

The bloggers have also alleged that Kallimullah and NST are Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's spin doctors.