KUALA LUMPUR: If The Malaysian Insider had to be taken to court before being blocked, how would the government be able to block other websites such as porn sites, asked Communications and Multimedia Minister Salleh Said Keruak today.

“If we have wait for a judgment against them before taking action, what then about websites that are involved in bad things like porn?

“The right to free speech is important, but not the right to ruin the government,” he said at Parliament house.

Salleh said the right to freedom of speech was important but the same freedom cannot be used to ruin a government.

He was responding to Hanipa Maidin (Amanah-Sepang) who said it was not right for the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) to block TMI when the online portal had not been declared guilty of wrongdoings in court.

Salleh said MCMC had a right to control Web content for the good of society.

Previously, Salleh claimed the news portal had caused public “confusion” with an article quoting an unnamed source from a Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) advisory panel.

TMI was shut down at midnight of March 14, leaving 59 of its employees without jobs.

TMI editor Jahabar Sadiq said The Edge Media Group, as the news portal’s owner, had made that decision based on commercial reasons.