KUALA LUMPUR: Blogging is no longer a part-time job and it is time bloggers had a code of ethics to promote accountability, said Home Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar.

"Blogging is touching the lives of more and more Malaysians. With such a powerful tool, bloggers are able to influence their readers and shape their perspectives.

"They can unite communities and they can divide them. The dangers of distortions and inaccuracies in blogging are very real and it is capable of destroying lives.

"Thanks in part to the blogosphere, dangerous assumptions often travel faster than truths," Syed Hamid said at the Blogger's Buff 2008 conference yesterday.

While stressing that the code was not a legislation, he said it would make people be accountable for what they wrote.

He urged bloggers to write balanced, accurate and verified information and and take greater caution on postings and comments that touched on sensitive matters that could lead to racial tension.

"The comment and talkback sections had unfortunately provided a channel for people to espouse hatred and racial sentiments, using it as a conduit for constantly validating their negative opinion.

"There is no excuse for this, which is something all parties need to seriously look into," he said.

On the Internal Security Act, Syed Hamid said they were appealing the court"s decision to release Malaysia Today editor Raja Petra Kamarudin because certain points of law were undecided and not because he was taken out of detention.

National Alliance of Bloggers (All-Blogs) pro-tem president Ahirudin Attan said a code of ethics for bloggers should be formulated without government interference.

"The biggest problem in blogging today is that the proverbial pen or in this case keyboard is mightier than the sword.

"It is so mighty that when held by the wrong hand it can create enmity and turn friends and brothers against each other," Ahirudin of Rocky's Bru blog said.

He said the penembak curi (a term used by bloggers to describe those who used blogs to hit out at others) should be ignored or treated as a surat layang.