The Malaysian media is presently testing the limit of press freedom accorded by the government, Communications lecturer Dr Safar Hashim told a dialogue in Kuala Lumpur today.

He was one of the five panelists at the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) dialogue programme with the media entitled 'The media's role and human rights'.

"The local papers are now mildly constrained with laws governing their behaviour but the papers are clearly testing their limits with their new found (press) freedom," he said.

The Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia academic told participants from the local media that this has resulted in 115 show cause letters being issued by the Internal Security Ministry compared to just five last year.

He pointed out that three papers have been suspended for this year alone despite claims that the local media is getting more liberal.

Safar also criticised the vernacular media for being divisive and asserted that a more Malaysian-focused media would provide a better pathway for national unity.

"If the media moves towards a more Malaysian nature rather than just the Chinese, Indian and Malay media [...] we will need less laws to regulate the media," he said.

'Courage and stupidity'

He then stressed that courage amongst journalists is needed to precipitate social change.

"Journalists must be courageous in their work. However, there's a thin line between being courageous and stupid," he said.

However, the topic of human rights were not discussed at great lengths during the dialogue. In its place was a thorough discussion on national unity, race relations and press freedom.

Suhakam commissioner and chair of the dialogue Asiah Abu Samah observed just that and said human rights are inherent in those issues.

"I didn't expect the topic of national unity to dominate the discussion but it goes to show how important it is concerning the media and their reporting," she said.

On press freedom, she said: "(It) comes with great responsibility but the question is how brave the media is and how far will they take it."

"There are still some people who are scared (of press freedom) but with our leaders liberalising the media [...] now is the time to test the limit," she added.

The objectives for the dialogue was to discuss the media's role in reporting human rights issues and to assess methodologies in responsible and fair reporting.

Other panelists include International Movement for Just World president Dr Chandra Muzaffar, TV3 environmental journalist Karam Singh Walia, malaysiakini editor-in-chief Steven Gan and Sisters in Islam programme manager Norhayati Kaprawi.

It was co-chaired by Suhakam commissioner Professor Khoo Khay Kim.