Utusan’s role is to back Umno, says editor

Utusan Malaysia is duty-bound to support Umno and Barisan Nasional (BN), the daily’s group editor-in-chief told an internal inquiry today probing charges that a senior journalist had tarnished the newspaper’s public image.

The first day of Utusan’s domestic inquiry against National Union of Journalist (NUJ) president Hata Wahari saw group editor-in-chief, Datuk Aziz Ishak, defending the daily’s pro-government stance.

According to Hata, Aziz had told the inquiry that it was the duty of the Malay-language newspaper to defend the interests of the ruling BN coalition.

“He explained that the position of the newspaper is to support Umno and Barisan Nasional,” Hata told The Malaysian Insider, after the end of the first day of the inquiry.

“But when asked about the opposition, he said that we don’t have any policy on the opposition,” he added.

Aziz had also questioned his loyalty to Utusan and whether he had a right to issue statements in his capacity as NUJ president while serving as a journalist for the Umno-owned newspaper.

When contacted Aziz refused to comment on his testimony, saying that a statement would only be issued upon completion of the inquiry.

Earlier Hata claimed that today’s proceedings violated a directive from Minister of Human Resources, Datuk Dr S. Subramaniam, who according to Hata had directed Utusan to postpone the inquiry and to negotiate with the NUJ leadership.

Hata has been accused of insulting Utusan’s management and tarnishing Utusan’s image through statements issued by him to various news portals between September 21 and October 14 last year.

He caused a stir when he urged the authorities to act against Utusan’s editors for stoking racial sentiment in its reports.

Hata also blamed the drop in the national daily’s sales on the editors for pushing what he called racial rhetoric.

He was suspended on January 11 and has been denied entry into Utusan offices for the duration of the inquiry.

The domestic inquiry was first scheduled for January 17 but was later postponed to January 19.

It was then rescheduled to January 25, and was postponed again because Hata was hospitalised for chest pains.

It was postponed yet again from February 9 because of his medical check-up.

On February 22, the inquiry was postponed to today after both parties failed to reach an agreement over Hata’s representation and his request for proceedings to be recorded.

The inquiry, however, allowed NUJ-Utusan chairman, Taufik Razak, and one of its executive councillors, Hayad Sueet, to sit in as observers.

NUJ and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) had previously asked Utusan to call off the inquiry.

Utusan was founded in Singapore in 1939 by Malay intellectuals, including the republic’s first president, Yusof Ishak, but the company’s ownership was taken over by Umno in 1961. - Malaysian Insider