Government-owned news agency Bernama pledged to take legal action against one of its outgoing staff for allegedly defaming the company.
In a statement yesterday, Bernama accused Chinese news reader Sydney Yap Xi Ni of authoring comments on Facebook which had affected the image of both the news agency and government.
The news agency also dismissed allegations that its Chinese broadcast news unit staff were facing pay cuts.
Explaining the matter, Bernama said it had acquired the Chinese news unit from a private company in 2019 and had offered new contracts.
"All staff that were absorbed into Bernama agreed to the wages offered during the interview process.
"They have also been offered annual increments every time their contracts are extended," it added.
On allegations that Bernama was "reducing the quality" of its Chinese news unit, the agency explained the section was facing staffing issues. Hence, its broadcast days were reduced to five days from seven days.
Bernama added that staffing issues were an industry-wide problem affecting Chinese language broadcasters.
On Aug 5, Bernama announced that its 6pm Mandarin News programme will only air from Monday to Friday.
Following this, Yap wrote a lengthy explanation on her Facebook stating that hiring problems were due to low wages and delays due to bureaucracy.
The Bernama Mandarin News programme was once outsourced to a private company before it was absorbed by Bernama in 2019.
According to Yap, those who wished to continue working on the programme were forced to take pay cuts with "insignificant" increments in the following years.
She revealed that from a team of eight, Bernama Mandarin News was now down to three.
Yap said she was aware that wage and staffing problems affect the entire news industry and hoped she can raise awareness of the problem to the public as media is an important institution for democracy.
"But in what may be my last days as a journalist, I want to be as outspoken as possible. How can we speak out in the face of injustice for the public when we can't even do it for ourselves?
“How can we speak out against injustice in the future? How can we keep those in power accountable and how can we play the role of the fourth estate fully?
"I still hope that in the future, the Malaysian media industry will be able to preserve good journalists, produce good reports and every reporter with dreams and aspirations will have the opportunity to showcase their talents without having to give in to reality and being forced to leave eventually," she said.
Bernama chairperson Ras Adiba Radzi told Malaysiakini yesterday that she has received a report on the issue.
However, she said Bernama CEO Roslan Ariffin would be in a better position to answer the queries.
Ras Adiba also confirmed that she had received Yap's request for a meeting but did not have a chance to reply to the latter yet. - Mkini
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