It was the week that the controversial Hutton Report took centre stage. Granted that the death of Dr David Kelly and the 'sexing up' of evidence on WMD took place in faraway England - otherwise known as our erstwhile suzerain - but given the cause of just peace championed by the Umno-led Malaysian government before the Iraq war, it was destined that the integrity of Malaysia was at stake too.

(Yes, never doubt Malaysia's commitment to peace diplomacy, for where else in the world can one find the newly launched Peace Cola if not in Malaysia?)

The Malaysian government has never been known for being amicable with the British media. However, in waging an all-out campaign against the US-UK invasion of Iraq in the early 2003, the Malaysian leaders did in some way find an unlikely and awkward ally: the British Broadcasting Corporation.

The well-respected institution, in its thankless endeavour to strike a balance between uncovering nothing but the truth, and reporting the position of the Blair administration, caught fire when Andrew Gilligan, its journalist at Radio 4, went for the jugular and became embroiled in a media tussle with Downing Street, which eventually led to the suicide of Kelly. The rest, of course, is history.

That the Malaysian government was impressed by the independence of the BBC, as well as its braveness in confronting Tony Blair and his cabinet colleagues, is beyond dispute. Nevertheless, given the sanctimonious alliance between the ruling Barisan Nasional and the Malaysian media, reporting and commenting on the BBC affair without exposing the intricacies of such a relationship can indeed be an arduous exercise for the mainstream press here.

Trusting RTM

With the next general election just around the corner, coupled with the unwritten rule that political news at the home front should be given due priority, the decision by New Straits Times and its Malay sister daily Berita Harian to headline the largely biased Hutton Report the next day speaks volumes of the emphasis given to it.

Moreover, the Assistant Group Editor of NST Hardev Kaur took the US and the British governments to task over the ramifications of the largely discredited claims about Iraq's WMD in the light of the Hutton Report. True to form, Hardev has been most guileless, writing: " the media too became a casualty it was 'muzzled' it did not ask the relevant questions."

I may sound insincere, but I honestly did enjoy reading her piece, and was amazed at her ability to extricate herself from the media dilemma at home and write as if our press industry had been certified to practise thorough and open journalism!

In an editorial that came one day later, NST did not hesitate to cite a London Guardian

poll that showed that three times as many Britons trusted the BBC more than the British government. It has been truthful and fair, and has not an iota of doubt that there is a clear distance between the ruling establishment and the media.

(Hmm what if a similar question was put to us Malaysians? Between the RTM, the wannabe-equivalent of the BBC, and the Barisan Nasional, in whom would we have greater faith?)

Sinchew's approach

Since the British media live by the sword, it is only fair that it also dies by the sword. The sword, in the case of the BBC, is nothing but the highest media ethics and journalistic standards. As for the Malaysian media, well, if the support for the government of the day and the maintenance of multiracial peace and security are not the raison d'etre of their existence, what is?

Sinchew Daily

, the best-selling Chinese newspaper in the country, approached the Hutton Report from a rather different perspective. But this has to be understood in the wake of a special feature on the Chinese Malaysian press industry on RTM. The special, broadcasted last Thursday, placed the 'cultural role and mission' of the Chinese newspapers in Malaysia under a stringent scrutiny, in the course of which the complex issue of media ownership was also brought up.

Perhaps most outrageous and intolerable to Sinchew was the recurring images of its headquarters in Petaling Jaya, although neither the newsreader nor the commentator, Chang Teck Peng, mentioned its name literally. As expected, the special feature was full of innuendoes, nothing but a veiled attack on the Chinese daily that professes to 'uphold integrity'.

Citing the error of the BBC in its editorial process as an example, Tay Tian Yan, the deputy editor-in-chief of Sinchew , responded to that particular RTM special by lamenting the degradation of the public media into a private vehicle subject to the abuse and misuse by certain quarters for vengeance and placing public interests in jeopardy.

Suffice to say that Tay has failed to address the charges of allegedly blocking and intimidating paper vendors who might otherwise consider selling its fledgling rival Oriental Daily News , he also appears to have ignored, as Lord Hutton did, the severely restricted conditions in which the British media were operating during the run-up to the Iraq war.

As Greg Dyke, the former director-general of the BBC and one of the fall-guys of the Hutton Report, had said : "Mr (Alistair) Campbell (Blair's director of public communication) had been trying to intimidate the BBC so we reported what he wanted us to report. that's fair that's his job but our job is to resist that."

The very last point clearly escaped Sinchew 's deputy editor-in chief.

Would a leader who once enjoyed all the pomp and fanfare really go quietly? Well, at some point, former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad gave the public an impression as such. But there are growing signs that he has been making his presence felt lately.

Dr M in the limelight

For the past week, there has been a flurry of reports on his activities: receiving a sailboat as a token of appreciation for his contribution to the sports world on Thursday, being conferred an Honorary Doctorate of Islamic Thought by Universiti Malaya on Friday, expressing his regret over PAS politicising a rape case on Saturday, celebrating Hari Raya Aidiladha on Sunday, slamming PAS again for vote-fishing among primary school pupils on Monday and so forth.

On another matter, tt seems that each and every move of the former premier is reported no later than page three in NST , Berita Harian or Utusan Malaysia .

If you don't find him there, go to the opinion pages of the New Sunday Times

for a prominent article on him, which reassures the reader about the standing of Mahathir as a statesman. Most revealing is the quote from Kedah Menteri Besar Syed Razak Syed Zain, that 'Dr Mahathir as state BN election machinery adviser is important'.

I guess that more or less explains the recent revival of media interest in the former PM. But wouldn't the Bapa Pemodenan (Father of Modernisation) have something to say about the now modified, but less grandiose design of the proposed bridge to Singapore?