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Malaysia insists there is press freedom because journalists can interview cabinet ministers. Even the prime minister, Dr Mahathir Mohamed, is surrounded by them, unlike in Britain and the US, whose heads of government can only be interviewed, allegedly, from a distance. The inference then is that there is press freedom in Malaysia but not in Britain and the United States. The messenger for this view is the information ministry's new parliamentary secretary, Senator Zainuddin Maidin. Despite a lifelong career in journalism and retiring as editor-in-chief of Utusan Malaysia, he seems confused about what a free press is all about. Even more dangerous is that he is where he is to advise the government on the media.
Why is its credibility doubtful? Because the Far Eastern Economic Review's spurious allegation that infamous international financier George Soro funds malaysiakini "proves" its "credibility is doubtful". Never mind that malaysiakini has denied it and the Review, having made a blooper, creatively wriggles out of it. He
says he also has information, horror of horrors, that its chief editor
Steven Gan once worked for a newspaper the government considered anti-government.
(The only newspaper Gan had worked for in Malaysia was The Sun).
Several official explanations exist on why malaysiakini is barred, none bearing the ring of truth. It appears to me that the government and Zam, as Zainuddin is popularly known, least of all, know not what to do. It believes the press must be subservient to it, espousing only its views and, if possible, attack any with a different view. It does not believe in free debate. That even a respected journalist, Zam was could fall for this narrow view of the role of the press is more worrisome than in the piecemeal justifications when its arguments collapse. That there are newspapers and Internet sites which buck the trend of unalloyed and gratuitous support of the establishment and damning its detractors is neither here nor there. Abdullah Ahmad, in his jottings in the New Straits Times, says Asiaweek's three top positions are held by non-Asians. It must be since it is now in the Time magazine stable. But did not Dr Mahathir know this when he agreed to sit with them for an interview which damned him? Then why did he agree to the interview? There is not a cabinet minister who would not jump at the chance of being interviewed by the likes of Time, Newsweek, Asiaweek, Far Eastern Economic Review, or even the Straits Times of Singapore, but would not to a local non-establishment newspaper. Why? Dr Mahathir, in principle, would not allow local stringers of foreign publications to be present when its regional correspondent meets him. When the regional correspondent for the string of newspapers I once wrote for comes to interview him, it was always a condition of the interview that I be kept out. I am not alone. The local correspondents of foreign papers would not be allowed to interview the prime minister alone; it is a condition that reporters from head office or the region do so. The Asiaweek interview was conducted by the resident staff correspondent and two others from head office; all three, incidentally, are foreigners. Press
freedom, in Malaysia and elsewhere, is a state of mind more than a set
of legal rules. In Malaysia, the government from the earliest days of
independence kept it on a tight leash, even shutting down newspapers when
its political equanimity is challenged, arresting editors and journalists
under the Internal Security Act and worse. It puts the fright into journalists
and newspapers so that self-censorship more than reportorial independence
becomes the guiding light. When all is said and done, press freedom in Malaysia is iffy at best. We have not moved so far as Thailand or Indonesia has. That the best-read Malaysian newspaper these days is the Harakah, the political organ of the opposition Islamic Party of Malaysia or PAS, underscores the divide in the Malaysian media. Even more, malaysiakini has given respectability for Internet newspapers. Malaysiakini has faults aplenty, it works on a shoestring budget, its reporters are almost all newcomers to the trade, but its reach is undeniable. It is now required reading for any who wants to know the trends in Malaysia. It has more "meat" in its still skimpy online newspaper than all the mainstream newspapers put together. More important, it has forced the mainstream newspapers to improve their coverage, with The Sun leading the pack. But it gets little or no local support. Rehman Rashid's AgendaMalaysia shut down when it ran out of funds. When newspapers die, for lack of money or whatever, a piece of a nation's history dies with it. But no business man, even those who contribute millions of dollars to charities if that comes with it the right to sup at the prime minister's table, would not even consider supporting malaysiakini. He certainly would not when Zam makes wild accusations about it as he did yesterday (Zam: Journalists free to cover ministers, Feb 11). Press freedom will come to Malaysia only when the government allows the right of all newspapers to report what they feel must be reported. It would not come when on "sensitive" topics, all the mainstream newspapers give up the ghost and depend on Bernama for coverage, but so placed that the reader thinks it is by the newspaper. Press freedom does not come because reporters are allowed to surround cabinet ministers to ask inane questions; nor when you deny accreditation because you do not like what the newspaper, Internet or otherwise, report; nor when political parties are disallowed their right to express their views except under controlled limits. Zam's comments extols this debilitating view of press freedom in Malaysia. |
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Copyright@ 2003 Southest Asian Press Alliance. All rights reserved |
Freedom of the press, or to oppress 
It is his way of explaining why
the Internet newspaper, malaysiakini, is denied press accreditation.
"Malaysiakini reporters are barred from covering the (sic) press
conferences not because they are critical of the government but because
their credibility is doubtful," he said.