Can we do away with systematic media censorship?

 

My mother would often say to me, “Zan, I feel like a broken record player!”, about many of the mischievous things that I used to get up to when I was a child.

I don’t blame her because I was a very hyperactive child who could not sit still.

That is exactly how I feel when I see and read about issues in the media here in Malaysia.

Take for example the recent debacle about the Era FM hosts who uploaded a video of themselves mocking Thaipusam rituals and practices, thinking it was funny and hilarious.

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They didn’t think it was so funny when the public backlash came and legal action became a very possible consequence.

Then, they decided to apologise to the public but to many, it was too little too late and it came off as insincere because they only did it after getting in trouble.

For the record, I think that the video by these hosts was very distasteful and it seemed like it came from a place where they were looking down on the people they were mocking. That to me is not comedy or humour but rather more of an act of disrespect.

Comedy, when used properly, can be a good way to defuse sensitive and controversial situations. It can also be used as a light-hearted way to discuss heavy issues that would usually cause problems in discourse.

However, what these hosts did was definitely not in this spirit at all.

With that being said, should there actually be legal action taken against them for what they did? Personally, I would have to say I don’t agree with that.

Looking at different mechanisms

I think that freedom of speech and expression should still exist even in situations like this because if we can curb one person’s freedom of speech, then we can curb everyone’s.

Now let me explain my stand. Let me be clear again that I am not condoning the hosts for what they did. I just think that there should be a different mechanism to handle media content like this other than having laws put in place to try and control things like hate speech and racist remarks.

I would much rather see society taking responsibility in handling it rather than the authorities, and here is where I feel like a broken record because I am going to repeat something that I have written about so many times before, and that is I believe in societal censorship. But I feel very strongly about it.

My definition of societal censorship is when society acts as its own filter when it comes to content instead of the state or any other authoritative body.

So, if there is anything offensive or indecent in the media, the whole of society can decide it as so and then condemn it or pay it no heed.

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Basically, societal censorship is when everyone can access any kind of content or message and then have the freedom to decide for themselves whether it is for them or not.

If they like it, then good, if they don’t then they, like I said, either condemn it or pay no attention to it.

It is like when you go out to eat. If you happen to stumble on a restaurant that is really good, you would tell people all about it and most probably recommend it too.

However, if the restaurant is horrible, then you can stop going there yourself and tell other people not to go or complain to the restaurant.

For the restaurant that you like, it would be all good. As for the restaurant that you don’t like, they will probably see a drop in the number of customers.

However, if they take heed of the complaints they get, they can try to improve their cooking and that would most likely go down well with the customers and they would do okay.

Learn from backlash

Of course, it is a little bit different when it comes to the media. The influence that the media has is a little bit more hard-hitting, but the concept doesn’t run far.

If a certain media outlet faces backlash in comments and complaints, then they can reflect on the reasons why and make adjustments.

Another thing that can be done is also to allow for discourse and public criticism. Other people, content creators and media outlets can argue with what they did and form a counter-narrative.

This will then create public discourse and an exchange of ideas, opinions and points of view can be created, which would benefit society.

With all this being said, for something like this to exist, it is important that all parties need to be mature and responsible.

The people need to be mature and responsible and so does the media. The whole of society needs to be mature enough to handle proper public discourse and criticism.

Now, this leads to me feeling like it’s a broken record again because the same question always arises. In order for us to practice a concept like societal censorship, we need a mature and responsible society.

So, is our society actually mature and responsible enough to handle it?

It is because of this question that proponents of systemic censorship will argue for an authoritative law to govern content and media.

I have to admit that it is hard to make a case against this judging by how our society acts when it comes to different forms of content and media, but I think we will get there someday, eventually. - Mkini

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ZAN AZLEE is a writer, documentary filmmaker, journalist and academic. Visit fatbidin.com to view his work.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.