"Leaders are only humans and if there is nobody to criticise us, then we may be carried away by our positions," Deputy Premier Najib Abdul Razak said today when speaking of the media's role as a watchdog.

"In a democratic system, our fate lies in the hands of the people. As such it is best to be corrected early rather than be rejected by the people later," he said during the launch of the Pahang edition of Malay tabloid, Kosmo!

According to Bernama, Najib said while newspapers have to play their role as government critic, the exercise of that role must be done in a constructive and responsible manner.

"Newspapers can criticise, but it must be made responsibly and aimed at correcting things. This will help the party criticised accept them (criticisms) positively," he said.

Najib also said that newspapers must see that they play a holistic role in terms of providing intellectually-challenging reading material instead of focusing solely on increasing circulation.

Balanced role

Published mainstream media should not, however, be compared to the alternative media available on the Internet in terms of greater transparency, said Najib.

"From what I can see, the mainstream media is playing a balanced role. We cannot compare with the alternative media like that in the Internet, which is not controlled at all," he said.

"There is no control when it comes to the Internet as it is a different world altogether. What is important is control of the print media, especially the mainstream newspapers," Najib added.

"There is no total freedom and newspapers must understand their responsibilities. I do not see this as a problem as there lots of space for newspapers to make their coverage."