New media and the royal institution in Malaysia: Cases of insult to the rulers in social media [Media baharu dan institusi raja di Malaysia: Kes penghinaan raja-raja di media sosial]

For a parliamentary democracy and constitutional monarchy such as malaysia,striking a balance between control and freedom of the media is increasingly difficult with the proliferation of new media,especially social media. the malaysian federal constitution clearly gives freedom of speech to all citizens but there are restrictions that need to be complied with. cases of insult to the rulers in the new media is increasingly pervasive and the study aims to explore the concept of control and freedom of new media. method of research is content analysis based on 4 cases of insulting of rulers on blog,twitter and facebook pages. the study found that although the laws has been set,but there are still those who violate the rules. controls such as the enforcement process is also increasingly difficult and measures to increase awareness needs to be improved. existing laws and regulations are still inadequate and must be strengthened if symptoms of insulting the royal institution's sovereignty would be eliminated. © 2017,universiti kebangsaan malaysia press. all rights reserved.