Station's actions described as suppression of press freedom and disrespectful to mother tongues.
KUALA LUMPUR: Three student groups have urged Radio-TV Malaysia to stop interference with RMT2’s 8pm news bulletin in Mandarin, restore video footage and Mandarin headlines.
The three groups are the University of Malaya Association of New Youth, New Era Students Union, and Student Progressive Front of Unversiti Utara Malaysia.
They described RTM’s actions in removing video footage and Mandarin headlines from the bulletins for several days this week as an act of suppression of press freedom, and also claimed it was against constitutional protection of the use of mother tongues.
The three groups said RTM should lift restrictions and apologise to Malaysians.
“News media and journalists should be free from government influence, including overt and covert censorship,” their joint statement said.
RMT2 is reported to have aired the 8pm news bulletins without any accompanying video footage and removed Mandarin headlines, forcing the news readers to read out the text of the bulletin for the full 20 minutes.
The action was purported to be punitive action against the Mandarin news desk after a Malaysiakini photo-montage, with an image of Najib Razak looking downcast, was used as a backdrop to a news item about a civil suit involving the prime minister and Parti Keadilan Rakyat.
The student groups contended that RTM2’s Mandarin news desk had the absolute right to show any relevant photo when broadcasting the news.
It said the lack of Mandarin news headlines during the programme was disrespectful of the use of mother tongues, which the students claimed to be the basic right of every ethnic group and one that should never be subject to political interference.
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