COMMENT | What it takes to raise journalism standards

COMMENT | Uncovering corruption. Exposing social injustice. Holding public officials to account. Making a difference in the public discourse.

Early career journalists usually start with these ideals - up to a point when frustrations creep in. Some leave the profession. Others persist against the odds. That was my journalistic experience decades ago.

That reality still holds sway with the government’s imposition of a media accreditation system and code of media ethics, revised from the Malaysian Press Institute version written in 1989.

Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil’s media incursion contradicts his remarks last November that he would work hard to defend and uphold media rights and freedom.

Fahmi’s re-invention of media ethics...