Former Malaysian PM Mahathir calls for more internet censorship

Former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad has called for the internet to be censored to preserve "public morality", in what the opposition suggested was an attempt to silence government critics.

Mahathir, who was the country's longest-serving prime minister, in office from 1981 to 2003, remains an influential figure in Malaysian politics.

"The internet has played a major role in undermining public morality," 89-year-old Mahathir said in a blog posting, adding that "today any child can access pornography of the worst kind.

"I don't care how sacred is freedom but I think the time has come for governments, at least the Malaysian government, to censor the internet."

Mahathir pledged in the 1990s that the government would never censor the internet, in a bid to lure hi-tech foreign investment.

"Not knowing the power of the internet, I promised that we (speaking then as the prime minister of Malaysia) would not censor it. But today I have changed my mind," he said.