KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 6 — Putrajaya is currently studying proposals to register online news portals as part of a raft of new cyber laws to be tabled in Parliament in October, newly appointed Communica­tions and Multimedia Minister Datuk Seri Salleh Said Keruak has said.

Salleh was reported by The Star daily as saying that the changes to the law will include the provision of power for the Malaysians Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) to block any site deemed as “a threat to national security”.

“I’ve been meeting MCMC officials to study the proposals.

“We are also looking at the structural aspects of MCMC and at amendments to tackle issues such as pornography, online gambling and Islamic State threats, among others.

“This is being done in the national interest,” he was quoted saying.

The proposal was made in the aftermath of public backlash over the Najib adminstration’s handling of corruption allegations surrounding debt-stricken state investment arm 1Malaysia Development Berhad and has been seen as an attempt to silence criticism against the government.

Salleh, however, denied this.

“It has nothing to do with that. We want comprehensive amendments. The laws were introduced in 1998, and since then, there has been a lot of developments.

“We must take into account these developments. Many countries also amend their cyber laws to ensure that social media does not cause problems,” he was quoted saying.

The former Sabah state assembly speaker who vocalised his support of Najib following last week’s Cabinet shake-up, was also reported saying his ministry is now looking at different approaches to enforce the proposed law, including that adopted by Singapore which tightened its reins on the media last year.

But the minister insisted that the government has no plans to restrict the usage of social media, saying it would be impossible for them to monitor everything on the internet and that action would have to be on case-by-case basis.

“We cannot be monitoring every social media user. If there is a complaint and there is basis to it, we will look into it.”