The Ministry of Internal Security recently indicated its willingness to listen to the civil society groups on book banning and reconsider several titles under the ban list. In a meeting with the CIJ and Sisters in Islam (SIS), it promised to correct the inconsistency in practices among its officers and to standardized the guidelines at all checkpoints, although stopped short of acknowledging that the banning of books violated freedom of speech.

The ministry's department of Publication & Quranic Text Control also handed to CIJ and SIS a copy of its guidelines in control of "undesirable publication", a power conferred under the Printing Presses and Publication Act 1984.

During the meeting on June 12, CIJ and SIS brought up a package of issues concerning book banning to the department;

• Doesn't book banning contravene the Constitutional guarantee on freedom of speech?
  
• Doesn't the ministry's process of ban first, appeal later place protection of free speech to the back burner?
• Why are books which had been in the market for years being banned although no occurrence of public disorder had been linked with the book?
• Why isn't the ministry independent in deciding which titles should be banned, as its portfolio covers the entire country, compared to the Islamic Development Department Malaysia (JAKIM) which only concerns one religion?

The department said that it received complaints from members of the public on particular titles, which may have been available in the market for sometime and causing it to be banned retrogressively.

On books on Islam, the department relies on JAKIM to study the book and decide whether it should be banned. The ministry said that it welcomes publishers whose books are restricted at checkpoints to make an appeal, but so far none has came forward.

On the 109 restricted books listed by publisher Silverfish, the department found that only half were indeed put under restriction.

This is the second meeting with the department on book banning since July 2006, in which CIJ and SIS handed a petition signed by over 100 individuals and 10 organizations protesting the ban of 18 books.

The latest ban was on June 6, when 37 books on Islam were banned, because of "twisted facts" in the books. Earlier in January, 18 books also fell under the same fate. Both instances have added to the larger maelstrom of book banning in the past two years. In 2006, more than 50 books were banned officially, while 14,400 titles were reportedly restricted entry at the custom checkpoints. The public are denied access to those books and ideas, usually based on a sweeping suspicion that the books potentially cause harm to the country.

In an interview with the Sun on May 3, Deputy Minister Fu Ah Kiow said that books are banned to preserve public safety and morality. He told the Sun that the officers in charged at the checkpoints are well-trained for the job, though some of them may take the guidelines "too literally".

CIJ will call a meeting among civil society groups to discuss guidelines for publications, as the department head, Che Din Yusoh has said he was open to the idea of a broad-based dialogue on this matter. CIJ argued that due to the wide variety of interpretations of content, be it religion or culture, it was necessary to listen to the different viewpoints.