The press gangs of Malaysia

"The function of the press in society is to inform, but its role in society is to make money."

- AJ Liebling

I have no interest if the Malaysian mainstream media are "pariahs" or "prostitutes", although I have never had a problem flinging either term at specific targets when the need arose.

I never bought into that cliché of ‘free press' believing that such a state is heavily reliant on context and generally those who advocated this ideal rarely practiced it themselves.

This does not mean I don't subscribe to the concept of a "market place of ideas" which is dependent on freedom of expression, which has always been constrained here in Malaysia, the press being the prime example.

Of course the ‘alternative media' is slowly becoming one big echo chamber (if it's not already) and any real objective analysis gets in the way of the business of reinforcing bias.

And for the time being, this is really not such a bad deal. Sure, it is not ideal and it certainly does not encourage any rigorous public debate within the mainstream discourse but look at what the public has to work with.

Political parties have their own press/propaganda organs, the difference being that our tax money is being used by the BN regime to fund theirs.

With restrictions placed on how the opposition can disseminate their ‘news' and the biased manner in which the state enforces its sedition laws, the propaganda organs of the BN are allowed to run riot (except of course if you're a non-Malay propaganda organ, then you're at the mercy of the right-wing faction of Umno) all the while, the ‘opposition' is hounded for everything they print as being enemies of the Umno state.

The alternative media assumes the role of watchdog for the simple fact that they will print (most times) almost anything that the mainstream media won't touch. You would be amused at the euphemisms used by editors in the mainstream media in lieu of the term "official control".

If the opposition is denied access to the mainstream media then Malaysians should be thankful that they have an alternative media to turn to.

After all, how many scoops of official corruption and individual malfeasances has the mainstream media presented to the public? How many times has the alternative media set the news agenda when it comes to issues facing the country unlike the manufactured nonsense meant to detract from governmental corruption put forth by the mainstream media?

'Fair reporting' pledge

However, what this has created is the perception that the alternative media has the monopoly on the truth and everything from the mainstream media is a pack of state sanctioned lies.

This perception is passed off as an axiom by proponents of the alternative media in any discussion on the state of the fourth estate in this country, which has lead to the inevitable ‘us vs them' mentality in which name calling, with choice epithets like "pariah" and "prostitute" is substitute for rational debate.

Mind you, I participate in this with my own bias, being firmly entrenched somewhere between ‘us' and ‘them'.

All this talk by the National Union of Journalists about a ‘fair reporting' pledge is misguided and inimical to the concept of freedom of expression. What the NUJ should be advocating is for an open space free from those pernicious laws that the state uses to persecute dissenting voices.

It really does not matter if media groups are biased but what is important is that the state has very little influence (certainly not the kind the Umno regime has here in Malaysia) on what the public has access to or how laws are used selectively to sanction the expression of certain contrarian views.

One hopes that with regime change, it will also mean a change in the way how the press is controlled or not controlled, and what Pakatan Rakyat will do is encourage a market place of ideas instead of ghettos of partisan rhetoric.

So while the partisan nature of the media, alternative or mainstream, does not bother me, what is galling has been the way how the Malaysian mainstream media pontificates on the neutrality of the press or ethical journalism or the responsibility of the press in a multiracial country.

Neutrality of journalists?

Yushami Yahya's opinion piece in The Malay Mail, ‘Neutral is the colour of our press tag' is a laughable collection of clichés, which is the perfect example of why many people loathe the mainstream media.

This wretched opinion piece could only be strung together by a writer who arrogantly dismisses the perception of the general public that the mainstream press is nothing but a collection of party propaganda organs.

A slimy comment piece about press neutrality, which is in essence a swipe against Kwong Wah Yit Pohreporter Adam Chew (right) whowas attacked in the anti-Lynas demonstration in Penang, the piece insinuates that Chew status as a journalist was compromised by the colour of the shirt he wore, the absence of a press tag and the fact he "confronted" (some would argue, "defended himself") an unruly mob.

And for good measure there's the reporter's own quote where he (Chew) claims to have defended Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng and himself from the Umno thugs. I suppose this is the money shot which reveals Chew to be a partisan hack.

Yushami has the cojones to use the word "apolitical" to describe journalists. On its own, it's funny especially if one is knowledgeable of how the media around the world operates but it is hilarious in the context of Malaysia considering the constraints the mainstream media operates within.

Yushami obviously hasn't done his homework because if he had, he would be aware that Information Minister Rais Yatim considers state broadcasters, ostensibly ‘journalists', as government-sanctioned ‘spin doctors'.

It's ludicrous to single out Chew for not being apolitical when the RTM broadcasters begin their state-sanctioned announcements with the ‘Salam Satu Malaysia' greeting, which is in reality a party slogan.

Report without fear of favour

And let's not forget that Utusan Malaysia kicked out former NUJ president Hata Wahari for pointing out the fact that the mainstream press was indeed biased in favour of the establishment when reporting the news or to quote Hata, "all mainstream journalists, especially of Utusan Malaysia, New Straits Times, Berita Harian andThe Star to return to their true function as deliverers of objective information to the public, and not as tools of propaganda for the government, or any political party or individual, for their personal gain."

Besides worrying of the ‘neutrality' of journalist, Yushami is concerned that journalist should report the news, not make it.

It's silly to talk about journalist not making the news when the Awang Selamats of the Malaysian press run havoc or The Star ‘mistakenly' attributes a provocative quote to a chief minster during a recent debate.

Of course, the raison d'etre of the media is ‘making news' while making money, so Yushami with his old school rule of journalism comes off sounding like a first-year journalism major which does nothing to enhance his credibility as an editorial advisor to theMalay Mail.

It's disingenuous when Yushami implies that Chew is partisan when the reality is that the news agenda, which includes opinion pieces, in the mainstream press is supportive of the agendas of political parties which constitute the government or in the alternative media which reflects the views of the opposition.

Yushami should tell his colleagues not to worry so much about newsmen making the news but instead get down to the business of reporting the news without fear of favour or to quote Hata (again), "to return to their true function as deliverers of objective information to the public", and this also applies to the journalists in the alternative media.

My advice to Yushami or any journalist sympathetic to his views - if you don't want to be mistaken for practitioners of the world's oldest trade, I suggest you stop writing drivel that could be mistaken for soliciting.

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S THAYAPARAN is Commander (rtd) of the Royal Malaysian Navy.