MALAYSIA MAY NEED "CYBER COURT"

MARANG (Malaysia), Jan 6 (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 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 this east coast town.

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 (Malaysia's east coast state), 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