Don’t deal with mainstream media, corporations urged

Global Bersih, the coalition of overseas Bersih supporters, urged corporate citizens in Malaysia to stop their business dealings with the mainstream media for their grossly unethical reporting of last Saturday’s Bersih 3.0 rally.

Describing some media organisations as “being totally detrimental to the future of democracy in Malaysia”, the coalition called upon advertisers and sponsors helping tofund these organisations to pay heed to their moral compass and ask themselves, “What are we doing to Malaysia?”

“Businesses that advertise or enter into sponsorship with these groups must realise that they are supporting blatant distortion and misrepresentation of the Bersih 3.0 rally.

“It is morally and ethically wrong. This practice must stop if Malaysians are to progress and save our democracy from further damage,” said the group in a statement issued today.

Commenting on the United Nations-designated World Press Freedom Day, Global Bersih said the continuing failure of Malaysia’s mainstream media to accurately reflect Malaysian society is a tragedy that must end.

“The scandal behind censorship of the BBC report of last Saturday’s events is only the tip of the iceberg. The vague and inadequate excuses given by Astro for censoring the BBC’s and Al Jazeera’s reports on Bersih 3.0 only serve to betray the trust of their audience and customers.”

Global Bersih also directed its criticism at state-owned TV station RTM, private TV station TV3, and newspapers Utusan Malaysia, The Star and The New Straits Times (NST) as “clear examples of an apparently orchestrated programme of gross distortion and manipulation of events using long-discredited methods that echo the censorship programs of the Nazis’ Goebbels and others”.

Absolute zero for professonalism

“Put together, their coverage of Bersih 3.0 represented the total failure of Malaysia’s licensed mainstream media to provide a professional, accurate and fair news service,” Global Bersih said.

“When a quarter-million Malaysians rallied for free and fair elections, NST could only headline their report with ‘Day of Shame’.

“The day after Malaysians risked life and limb in the name of democracy, The Star would only report ‘Big mess after Bersih’.”

Although Bersih 3.0 is a chapter in Malaysia’s history that will resound for generations, Global Bersih said, it is also Malaysian journalism at its most evil.

“Journalism is the first draft of history, and these media companies totally failed the nation when they abdicated their responsibility to record these events truthfully.”

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Don’t deal with mainstream media, corporations urged
May 3, 2012 – Malaysiakini

TV cleansing to a fault

…
The BBC was rightly incensed that its coverage was snipped off so that its reportage appeared unbalanced and unfair to the parties concerned in the rally, namely Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim and certain protesters who voiced their anger towards unclean electoral rolls and what they alleged to be the police force’s disproportionate response to the breaching of the barricades at Dataran Merdeka.

In other words, the BBC is concerned that the cut footage adversely affects the quality and credibility of its reportage as well as the professionalism that the British institution strives to achieve. If this isn’t clear enough to Astro, this means that journalistic professionalism, which is a standard operating procedure for any news organisation worth its salt, demands that reporting be fair and balanced.

As if this editorial intervention isn’t enough of a problem, Communication, Information and Culture Minister Rais Yatim came to the defence of Astro, which essentially constitutes a further insult to our collective intelligence. He insisted that Astro should instead be given credit for having shown the “best parts” that were newsworthy. Besides, he added, “each broadcasting house is at liberty to exercise its own style of eliciting the best news items for its station.”

Informed Malaysians know that the mainstream media, and these include TV stations that are owned or controlled by people close to the powers-that-be, do not have enough room to manoeuvre so that biased reporting (towards the ruling party and the federal government) becomes a rule and not an exception. It is sheer, if one could borrow a word used by well-known writer Kee Thuan Chye in his latest popular book, “bullshit” to suggest that the mainstream media are free to decide on their own, especially at a time when the hegemony of the ruling elite is under threat from the ordinary people and other social forces.

To cut to the chase, what has happened at Astro is a crude application of censorship procedure based on some questionable guideline crafted by the authorities. This is to say that the kind of censorship that is meant to conceal things that may cause eventual shame and culpability to the parties concerned especially the authorities — and consequent indignation of members of the general public.

As intimated earlier, this state of the Malaysian mainstream media indeed only underscores one of the demands of the Bersih 3.0 steering committee as well as other concerned Malaysians, which is to have fair and balanced reporting as well as independent and accountable media.

It’s not for Rais and his merry men to decide what is “good” for ordinary Malaysians especially in an era where, as Prime Minister Najib Razak himself once asserted, the government no longer knows best. In this case, Malaysians should be shown the entire BBC video footage of Bersih 3.0 — apart from other video clips by other parties — before they make their informed judgment.

Only then would we know who got themselves dirty.

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TV cleansing to a fault
May 03, 2012 – TMI

1 MOOLAYSIA

“Jika anda tidak mampu lawan mereka, ketawakan mereka!”

Get the latest cartoon book by Zunar here.

zunarcartoonist.com

‘Najib, Taib must apologise for embarrassing us’

The fiasco involving government-hired UK consultants FBC Media and television networks BBC, CNN, and CNBC has compromised the integrity of our leaders, claims PKR.

KUCHING: Sarawak opposition has called on Najib Tun Razak and Taib Mahmud to resign following British Broadcasting Corporation’s (BBC) apology for allowing its widely viewed ‘World News’ programme to be used to air “ego-boasting” propaganda material paid for by the Malaysian government.

“Now that the shameful truth has come to light, we call upon the Prime Minister and Chief Minister to also apologise to the people for squandering our money in this delusional ego-boosting exercise.

“They should resign immediately if they possess even an ounce of integrity and self respect, ” said Sarawak PKR chief Baru Bian.

He added that it was difficult to believe that Najib and Taib “do not realise that good reputation and respect are to be earned and cannot be bought even if one is wealthier than the Queen of England”.

Bian was commenting on BBC’s apology for airing public relations driven spins on Malaysia which were produced by UK-based FBC Media Ltd.

In August last year, BBC suspended all programming contracts from the FBC, after it was ‘confirmed’ that FBC had received payment to produce and air, as genuine content, at least four documentaries on Malaysia’s palm oil industry and its “treatment of the rainforest and indigenous people”.

BBC in a statement to UK daily The Independent had said that “FBC has now admitted to the BBC that it has worked for the Malaysian government” and received “almost £6 million” (RM28 million) from the Najib administration.

Bian said BBC’s apology was a result of the investigations by online portal Sarawak Report (SR).

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‘Najib, Taib must apologise for embarrassing us’
February 15, 2012 – FMT

The Prostitution of the Mainstream Media

A few days ago, a friend remarked that he hasn’t read the Utusan Malaysia for almost 2 years. When I asked the reason why, he answered simply by stating Utusan Malaysia has become the extended mouthpiece of UMNO and BN. Especially the former. Its editorials are nothing more than patronizing dictations by an officious Guru Kanan in charge of discipline. He finds the editorials insulting to the intelligence and nauseatingly overbearing. Who wants to read a paper that says Nik Aziz is delusional, while Dr Mahathir who hasn’t made peace with the new political realities, isn’t?

For substitute he now reads Sinar which has surpassed Utusan in circulation and credibility. I am inclined to believe many others share his revulsion for not only Utusan Malaysia but other members of the mainstream media too. The citadel for the shameless media partisanship has shifted from Jalan Riong to the HQ of Media Prima.

For many years now mainstream media has become increasingly partisan and more overt in promoting the policies of UMNO and BN. This evolutionary process by which the MSM became literally the mouthpiece of partisan politics, reached its zenith in 2008 when the media were instrumental in getting Abdullah Badawi kicked out. It was helped further by the existence of some nebulous and often secretive cells in the New Media, helmed often by equally publicity-shy media assassins cloaked under various aliases and pseudonyms. Their obsession for coward secrecy is surpassed only by the intensity of their vitriolic and penchant for ad hominem attacks.

These conclaves of media assassins in the new media are also said to be headed by banished journalists who thought they were legends in the own right. Once upon a time, they thought the world revolves around them and people worshipped at their feet. Some still do and are willing to pay these media witch doctors hefty sums of money.

Many journalists both in the official MSM and in the satellite new media dropped any pretense of objectivity and became not only cheerleaders but active de facto members of the campaign. What has their newfound loyalty and prostration achieved for the journalism community?

During the past two decades no other sector of the economy has experienced such overwhelming financial and employment devastation and severe loss of credibility. In a scathing reference to NST Malaysia, Lee Kuan Yew the former Singapore PM simply said that it has lost credibility. What do people read? They read Harakah, Roketkini and of course, the Internet.

Yet the vast majority of the media do not understand why theirs is a declining and failing business model. They are still in denial and cannot accept the reality of the marketplace, as their actions have prompted the Malaysian public to lose all confidence in their objectivity and integrity.

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The Prostitution of the Mainstream Media
5 February 2012 – Sakmongkol

TV3′s spin on Seksualiti Merdeka

While I do not usually watch TV3, and cannot remember the last time I switched to it, I did make a point to watch on Monday night. I was curious how they would handle, or spin rather, Marina Mahathir’s support of Ambiga Sreenevasan and her telling off of a TV3 reporter.

Marina had been completely blocked out of the report. Based on TV3’s version, she was never there. Ambiga however was prominently featured being interviewed by police who visited the Tenaganita office in Jalan Gasing.

TV3 then showed Ambiga, visibly angry, daring TV3 to broadcast her comments and threatening to sue them for portraying Seksualiti Merdeka as a free sex party. TV3 broadcast her comments. Now, before you start congratulating TV3 for broadcasting both sides of the story, note that Ambiga was talking in English.

The viewers who watch TV3’s 8pm news broadcast are predominantly Malay. What they would have seen is Ambiga looking angry, waving her arms about and speaking in a language they can’t really understand. Clever TV3, the nation’s only tongue-in-cheek propagandist.

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Spinning with TV Tiga: A Najib Razak and team production
Ismail Dahlan
8 November 2011 – Malaysia Chronicle

MCMC Censorship of ‘Undilah’ Video Absurd, Against the Spirit of Democracy

Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ) is shocked to learn that the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) has issued a directive to broadcasters not to air a video promoting voting for the upcoming general election. MCMC’s ‘ban’ of the Undilah project’s public service announcement urging the rakyat to vote is absurd and against the spirit of democracy.

Media reports on 23 Sept 2011, quoting unnamed sources, said the MCMC letter to broadcast giants Media Prima and Astro cited two reasons behind the ‘ban’: BN MP Tengku Razaleigh’s admission that Malaysia was facing problems and the appearance of Opposition politicians.

Apart from Pakatan Rakyat’s Nurul Izzah Anwar, Tony Pua, Khalid Samad and Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad, the hip promo also featured two deputy ministers, celebrities such as Daphne Iking, and famous Malaysians Tony Fernandes and Lee Chong Wei rapping to a tune led by Namewee and Afdlin Shauki.

The ‘ban’ came just days after Prime Minister Najib Razak, in his Malaysia Day message, announced a set of reforms affecting civil liberties, and promised Malaysia was on the path towards being the world’s best parliamentary democracy.

This latest case of censorship highlights the powers given to the MCMC to police broadcast and online content under the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 (CMA), which governs the multimedia and communications industry.

Given the politically-motivated nature of this directive from MCMC, CIJ wishes to highlight a few ironies in the composition and function of this “independent” commission which is under the direction of the Information, Communications and Culture Minister:

- under Section 71 and 72 of the CMA, reports of investigations are given to the Minister who may direct the Commission to publish what it deems to be of national interest;

- under Section 6 of the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission Act 1998 (MCMCA), MCMC membership is appointed by the Minister (one chairperson, three from the government, and two to five other members);

- under Section 12(1) of the MCMCA, the Minister may revoke the appointment of any member without giving any reason.

CIJ urges the MCMC to immediately rescind the directive. In addition, the MCMC must make public the findings of the inquiry which resulted in the directive being issued to Astro and Media Prima. Public service announcements urging voters to honor the electoral process by going out to vote is a matter of national interest which should be given due respect by the MCMC and the Information, Communications and Culture Minister. We also urge the PM to include amendments to the CMA and MCMCA as part of the “transformation” of Malaysia.

*Masjaliza Hamzah is the executive director of Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ). The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the writer.

…source
MCMC Censorship of ‘Undilah’ Video Absurd, Against the Spirit of Democracy
by Masjaliza Hamzah
23 September 2011 – Malaysian Digest

Undilah video taken off-air over Ku Li speech, opposition figures

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 23 — A video promoting the right to vote has been taken off the air by local broadcasters despite a push for greater democracy because it contains opposition figures and Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah’s speech talking about Malaysia having problems.

The Malaysian Insider learnt that the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) directed local broadcasters this week not to use the public service announcement (PSA) produced by musician Pete Teo just days after its launch on September 16.

“MCMC emailed both Astro and Media Prima Bhd about the issue, telling them the video clip should not be aired because Ku Li speaks about the country having problems and also because it features opposition leaders,” an industry source told The Malaysian Insider, referring to Tengku Razaleigh by his popular nickname.

“Only NTV7 used it but the MCMC email was sent to both organisations which control the majority of television channels in the country,” the source added.

A government source confirmed that MCMC sent the email to Media Prima, which is linked to Umno and owns the NTV7 channel, and Astro, the direct broadcast satellite pay-television service.

“The email about the PSA was sent this week,” the source said, adding he was puzzled about the directive as it referred to Tengku Razaleigh, who happens to be the Gua Musang MP for the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) government.

The MCMC is an independent regulator but it reports to Information, Communication and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Rais Yatim, who was incidentally the Kelantan prince’s comrade in Semangat 46 before the party was dissolved for the politicians to join Umno Baru, the successor party to the original Umno that was declared illegal in 1988.

Apart from Tengku Razaleigh, the 4.38-minute video also features Deputy Education Minister Datuk Dr Wee Ka Siong, Deputy Health Minister Datuk Rosnah Abd Rashid Shirlin and opposition figures Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua, Lembah Pantai MP Nurul Izzah Anwar, Shah Alam MP Khalid Samad and Seri Setia assemblyman Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad.

Teo, who produced the independent video as a voluntary project, said the alleged directive was “disturbing” as it went against Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s latest announcement to loosen media control and strengthen civil liberties in the country.

Najib had announced on September 15, the eve of Malaysia Day, that his administration would repeal several security laws including the Internal Security Act (ISA) and review media laws to bring about more democracy in the country.

Teo said Tengku Razaleigh’s comments that Malaysia has problems, such as rising cost of living, brain drain, corruption, worsening ethnic relations, declining economic competitiveness, et cetera, was “a commonly acknowledged fact even within the government, let alone among the rakyat”.

“Any objection to the mentioning of ‘problems’ not only flies in the face of reality, it also implicitly denies the need for reform, including those initiated by the PM.

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Undilah video taken off-air over Ku Li speech, opposition figures
September 23, 2011 – Malaysian Insider

Peanuts, not sweeping reforms

PEANUTS. That’s what Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s so-called “sweeping reforms” are. They hardly amount to a political transformation.

While it’s cheering to note that the Internal Security Act (ISA) will be repealed – finally, after our many years of waiting – and that the Emergency proclamations are to be lifted – a decision that is decades overdue – it’s disturbing to be told that they will be replaced by two new laws aimed at preventing subversion and safeguarding public order.

And even though the detention period under these new laws may be shorter, with further extensions to be made by court order, the Home Minister is still the one to decide who gets detained for suspicion of being a terrorist.

This means, theoretically speaking, that although Najib has given the commitment that “no individual will be detained purely based on political ideology”, there is no stopping the government from branding a political opponent a suspected terrorist, whether or not he is one. Just to lock him away.

Another so-called “reform” is scrapping the requirement for publications to renew their printing licences annually.

This, also, is nothing to crow about. It still means that publications have to obtain a licence that the Home Minister may or may not grant. It still means the Home Minister has the absolute power to suspend or revoke a licence at any time. And his decision cannot be challenged in court. He does not even have to give a reason.

It also means the Home Ministry can still call up newspaper editors and cow them into submission for publishing something the ministry finds objectionable. Like what happened recently to The Star when it ran the heading ‘Ramadhan delights’ for an eating-out supplement that was not totally devoted to halal food.

The ministry can still practise the double standards it has been practising – turn a blind eye to the race-baiting and rabble-rousing of Utusan Malaysia but come down hard on the minor transgressions of other publications. So where’s the change?

If the government were truly sincere and had the political will, it should repeal the Publications and Printing Presses Act (PPPA) and no longer require publications to obtain a printing licence. That would be in keeping with the spirit of what Najib talked about instituting in Malaysia when he announced the “reforms” on Sept 15 – a “democratic system based on the universal philosophy of ‘of the people, by the people and for the people’”.

Vague reforms

None of the newly announced “reforms” fully cohere with this spirit.

On Section 27 of the Police Act, Najib said there would be a review to take into consideration the provisions under Article 10 of the Federal Constitution which guarantees Malaysians the right to freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and freedom of association.

But in the same breath, he said police permits would still be required for street demonstrations, subject to certain criteria.

If freedom of assembly, which should be a right of all citizens, is still curtailed in this fashion, what is that rubbish talk of Najib’s about forging a democratic system “of the people, by the people and for the people”?

He did say, however, that “permission to assemble will be given in accordance with procedures to be fixed later that will take into account international norms”. But this sounds vague. What international norms did he mean? And when is “later” going to be?

And speaking of Article 10, why doesn’t the government address the other impediments to freedom of speech, such as the Official Secrets Act (OSA), the Sedition Act, the Universities and University Colleges Act (UUCA), the Multimedia and Communications Act, the Public Order (Preservation) Ordinance?

No wonder Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein was smirking and applauding when Najib made his announcements. His absolute powers remain intact.

Let’s not be fooled, people. The changes Najib announced are merely cosmetic. And of course they will have to be passed in Parliament first before they become effective.

Meanwhile, Articles 149 and 150 are still there to provide Parliament with the power to pass laws that do not have to be consistent with the freedoms guaranteed in Articles 5, 9, 10 and 13, and to allow the Cabinet to declare an emergency. The Emergency proclamations may go, but Article 150 is still around. We the people are still vulnerable.

ome of us may say that we cannot expect the government to make such truly sweeping reforms in one go, and that we should be thankful for the small mercies we are now getting. Some may say this could be just the beginning, and more reforms could come.

That’s well and good. But at the same time, we should give credit where it’s due for this beginning. It’s not Najib we should thank. What we are getting is what has been due us for a long time, what any concerned government should have given us even without our having to pressure them to do so.

We should instead acknowledge that the March 8 effect lives on, and therefore the credit for these changes should go to us the rakyat for voting as we did on March 8, 2008. We voted in a stronger opposition, we denied the ruling party the two-thirds majority that it had abused to increasingly curb our democratic rights over the decades. We sent them the message that enough was enough.

hese “reforms” have now come about because Barisan Nasional (BN) wants to stay in power, and it has realised that we have the power to decide whether that will happen. The “reforms” are meant to win back our votes. Ever since Najib took over as prime minister, he has been doing things merely to ensure that BN’s goal is fulfilled, not because he is altruistic or benevolent in spirit. We have seen his meanness in numerous other ways.

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Peanuts, not sweeping reforms
By Kee Thuan Chye
September 16, 2011 – FMT

In Malaysia, Freedom of the (Virtual) Press – NY Times

KUALA LUMPUR — When thousands of protesters calling for electoral reform took to the streets here July 9, Malaysiakini, one of Malaysia’s most popular news Web sites, received 5.2 million hits, making the day one of the site’s busiest since it was established in 1999.

An increasing tendency to seek news online is hardly unique to Malaysia. But here, it is not just technology driving readers to news Web sites. It is also that — by design, and in contrast to countries like China, with its infamous Great Firewall — in Malaysia the Internet operates outside the stringent laws that regulate the traditional media.

So while newspapers, radio and television can operate only with a government license and books and films must be approved by censors, who insist that controls are necessary to avoid social problems like inflaming religious sensitivities in this predominantly Muslim country, the Internet has remained largely free of government interference.

But now that disparity — between media restrictions so stringent that Reporters Without Borders ranked Malaysia a low 141 out of 178 on its 2010 Press Freedom Index, and a relatively unfettered Internet that allows citizens to easily circumvent those restrictions — has called into question whether the censorship laws are worth upholding in the digital age.

Last month, Prime Minister Najib Razak called for a re-examination. “I have decided the old ways of censorship needs to be studied,” he said. “It is no longer effective and should be reviewed.”

His announcement followed the blacking out of parts of an article in the print edition of the British newsmagazine The Economist about the July protests and a court ruling upholding a ban on a book of cartoons critical of the government. Meanwhile, all the material remained available online.

Mr. Najib acknowledged that censoring The Economist had brought more harm than good. “The very act of censoring it made a bigger story than the article itself,” The Star newspaper quoted him as saying.

The Internet exception stems in part from a pledge by former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad in 1996, when he established the Multimedia Super Corridor. The aim of this government-designated zone near the capital was to help catapult Malaysia into the ranks of advanced nations by attracting foreign investment with inducements like tax incentives and high-speed Internet access.

But one, perhaps unanticipated, result was to clear the way for the rise of local news Web sites, many of which published critical stories and commentary rarely seen in the mainstream news media. Where once Malaysians eager for independent news coverage might have looked to foreign newspapers, now they could simply log on to homegrown sites.

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In Malaysia, Freedom of the (Virtual) Press
By LIZ GOOCH
September 8, 2011 – NY Times