An Indictment of Malaysia’s Media
SEEING IT MY WAY
Malaysiakini.com November 22, 2007
Editorial lead: Editors and journalists serve as nothing more than as chief errand boys and girls for the establishment.
If you were a Malaysian and had relied only on the mainstream media for news, you could be excused for being befuddled over what happened in Kuala Lumpur on the Saturday of November 10, 2007. You would be confounded too on the day before to see the normally busy streets eerily empty except for police trucks and personnel. Tourists could be excused into thinking that they were visiting a banana republic in the midst of another routine military coup.
It turned out that the only folks befuddled on both days were ministers and officials. The citizens knew exactly what was going on despite the news blackout by the mainstream media. That more than anything demonstrates the irrelevance of these mainstream editors and reporters.
No amount of post event editorial contortions could alter that fact. These editors and journalists have little left of their personal pride and professional integrity; they have completely prostituted themselves to being instruments of the state’s propaganda machinery. They may have fancy titles as Group Editor or Editor-in-Chief, their functions however are nothing more than as “chief errand boys and girls” for the establishment. They acceded only too willingly to orders from their political masters.
Their once informative news pages are today filled with nothing more than ministerial speeches and press releases. Their formerly critical and influential Op-Ed columns are today reduced to carrying unashamedly toadying pieces praising the current leaders.
Malaysians are fully aware of this reality and react accordingly. The mainstream papers’ declining circulation, readership, and influence attest to their lack of credibility. These papers are eagerly read only by members of the ruling party, where the obsession is on tracking which party operatives are being featured on the front page and which ones have been relegated to the middle. The paper is effectively reduced to being the ruling party’s newsletter.
Uncurious Bystanders
The Malaysian mainstream media have failed in their basic duty to keep the public informed and holding those in power accountable. The media have become part of the establishment; their role model is Pravda.
As for any investigative journalism, it is a sad commentary that the mainstream media have remained uncurious bystanders in the major evolving public scandals. The infamous Lingam videotape purportedly showing a politically connected lawyer fixing judicial appointments with a senior judge was exposed not in the mainstream papers rather in blogs and Internet news portals. Similarly, the government’s purchase of a luxurious Airbus jet for the use of the prime minister was revealed by Raja Petra’s Malaysia-Today.net. He was able to secure such details as the exorbitant costs, extravagant customization, and tail number.
Time and again the government (as well as the mainstream media) had to react to revelations in blogs and the alternative media.
In a plural and diverse society as Malaysia, the media have the additional and essential role in mediating the contesting and often polarizing demands of the various constituencies. The more those contests and rivalries are played out on the editorial pages the less likely they are to spill onto the streets.
Again on this important dimension, the mainstream media have failed miserably. Instead of mediating they have become active participants, adding to the divisions.
In this news and information vacuum the alternative media, especially the Internet news and commentary portals like Malaysia-Today and Malaysiakini, have been a roaring success, regularly registering daily hits in excess of millions. The mainstream media would be ecstatic to have a fraction of those figures.
Mahathir’s Legacy
It is a singular tribute to former Prime Minister Mahathir that he granted freedom to the Malaysian cyberworld. Although when he did it, Mahathir was not in the least concerned with citizens’ rights to independent information, it was more to attract investors to his Multimedia Super Corridor. They would not take kindly to any hint of censorship. This freedom albeit restricted only to the Internet may yet prove to be Mahathir’s greatest legacy. It is ironic that he would benefit personally from this initiative now that the mainstream media have completely ignored him with his being out of office.
This blooming of the Internet is the reason why Malaysians are no longer easily befuddled. On the contrary they have become better informed despite the relentless propaganda of the mainstream media.
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Shame On Malaysian Editors and Journalists!
The Malaysian media’s coverage of the Bersih rally of November 10, 2007 was disgraceful. They have failed in the most public and reprehensible manner in carrying their elemental function: that of informing the citizens. Those editors and journalists have acceded only too willingly to their political masters, treating their wishes as commands.
If those editors had disagreed with the demonstrations, they had their editorial pages to put forth their arguments. Their news pages however should be concerned with information that could affect the citizens no matter how unpalatable that might be to the editors’ individual tastes. Those editors and journalists could not even differentiate between what is and what is not newsworthy; for that most basic professional instinct they had to rely on directives from the politicians.
If those editors have any sense of personal pride and professional integrity left, they would remove their names from the masthead of their respective publications and organizations. They won’t. On the contrary, to them they have performed a splendid job. They have completely prostituted themselves as arms of the state’s propaganda machinery. Far from being embarrassed, they are proud of that fact!
The surprise is not that they have so easily debased themselves and their profession rather that their price is so cheap. They may have fancy titles as Group Editor or Editor-in-Chief, their functions however are nothing more than as “chief errand boys and girls” for the establishment.
They are cheap because there are few takers for their talent. No news or media organization worth their salt would ever consider hiring these mainstream editors and journalists. Not even on a freelance basis! That is a measure of their worth. How far did Rehman Rashid go when he was kicked out of The New Straits Times a few years ago? And he was considered one of their “better” ones!
It has been a long time since someone from The New Straits Times had been awarded the Neiman Fellowship in Journalism for study at Harvard. It is widely acknowledged that a stint at the paper is a strike against winning that prestigious award.
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Breach of Trusteeship
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The pages (especially the Op-Ed) of a newspaper are sacred and a valuable piece of real estate. Editors and journalists are not so much “owners” as “trustees” of such an space; their job is to protect and enhance its value and integrity.
Even the most valuable and strategically located piece of real estate would quickly lose its value if it were not taken care of properly. The urban blights of major American cities and the decay of once thriving waterfront locales of Malaysian coastal towns are testimony to this wisdom.
Once customers start abandoning you, your revenue quickly declines and with it your ability to maintain let alone enhance your establishment. The deterioration then sets in very quickly, the downward spiral accelerating and becoming irreversible. Before you know it, your paper has become a fish wrap.
Regrettably this is the status of The New Straits Times today. Malaysians are fully aware of this reality, as attested by the paper’s declining circulation, readership, and influence. It is influential only among its UMNO readers, where the obsession is on seeing which UMNO operatives are being featured on the front page and who has been relegated to the middle. The paper is now pathetically reduced to an UMNO newsletter.
I was aware of this degradation much earlier when I was getting fewer and fewer responses to my articles. The reason was obvious: the paper’s rapidly declining readership!
My last piece was an invited commentary to launch the paper’s Millennium Essay series. I was pleased when the editor congratulated me for my having created a “buzz” among the establishment. The only problem was, on my visit home a few days later no one had ever heard much less read my piece. So much for the paper’s reach! My disillusionment was sealed when the following essay was an embarrassingly toadying one by a young female politician “writer.” Thankfully the editor prematurely terminated the series with that mushy piece.
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Essence of Democracy
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The function of the press in a democracy is to inform citizens of the reality around them. An informed public is the very foundation of democracy.
An important aspect to informing is not only to relate that reality as accurately as possible but also to put it in its proper perspective. This is where the editorial pages are crucial. The editorials and commentaries give perspectives to the news on the other pages.
With power being increasingly concentrated in governments and corporations, the mass media should also serve as a powerful watchdog on abuses of power by those who wield it. Only by doing so would the media be defending the rights of the citizens.
Malaysian mainstream media have failed miserably too in this important facet of investigative journalism. It is a sad commentary that the mainstream media have remained uncurious bystanders in the major evolving public scandals, from the infamous Lingam tape to the purchase of luxurious corporate mega jet for the prime minister’s use.
In a plural and diverse society like Malaysia, the media have an additional and indeed essential role to play: that of mediating the contesting and often polarizing demands of the various constituencies. The more those contests and rivalries are played out on the editorial pages the less likely they are to spill onto the streets.
Again on this important dimension, our mainstream media have failed in their collective obligation. Instead of mediating they have become active participants, adding to the divisions.
Nature however, abhors vacuum. With the mainstream media abdicating their essential roles, the alternative media, especially the cyberworld, have filled in this information void. It is no surprise that Internet news and commentary portals like Malaysia-Today and Malaysiakini have been roaring successes, regularly registering daily hits in excess of millions. The mainstream media would be lucky to have a fraction of those figures.
It is a singular tribute to former Prime Minister Mahathir that he granted freedom to the Malaysian cyberworld. Although when he did it, Mahathir was not in the least concerned with the rights of citizens to independent information, it was more to attract investors to his Multimedia Super Corridor. They would take kindly to any hint of censorship. This freedom of the Internet may yet prove to be Mahthir’s greatest legacy. It is the supreme irony that he would benefit personally from his initiative now that the mainstream media have completely ignored him with his being out of office.
This flowering of the Internet is the reason why Malaysians are no longer befuddled. On the contrary they have become better informed despite the propaganda of the mainstream media.