Among the many hurdles that the local media faces is that it has to try and not upset the government. On top of this, they must not also upset their advertisers lest they pull the advertising revenue plug resulting in substantial losses.

Perhaps this is understandable if at the end of the day it is all about making profits and paying the bills be they newspapers, magazines or other forms of media.

Some months back, I wrote an article criticising a local conglomerate which took out festive ads on the need for unity and social bonding among Malaysians. I felt this company was being hypocritical as they themselves were not promoting these noble aims.

Needless to say, my article was pulled out at the last minute with the publication I had sent it to saying that it was due to them 'not wanting to offend' their advertisers. While that is certainly their right, it just proves my point above.

Recently, I wrote a letter to a local publication on the deteriorating standard of service at the local service centre of a car company.

The editor of this particular publication called me to verify the author of the letter. He then asked for my number and asked if they could first refer to the company concerned. I said please go ahead and gave all the details.

The letter never appeared and a week later another person called and said they had forwarded my letter to the company concerned and were waiting for their reply before they published my piece. I told them that this was irregular as 'a letter to the editor' is normally not shown to third parties.

Needless to say, the letter was never published.