Abolish laws for press freedom

Nothing short of abolishing oppressive press laws will do to ensure that Malaysia’s media is free.

This is the message that media watchdog Centre of Independent Journalism (CIJ) has been campaigning for ever year in commemorating World Press Freedom Day that falls on May 3.

After featuring rock concerts in the past two years as part of its campaign strategy, CIJ this year opted to focus on discussions and an exhibition instead.

Held in the Annexe, Central Market in downtown Kuala Lumpur - the exhibition features a completely blank wall representing space meant to be filled freely by the public.

CIJ executive director V Gayathry said the ‘Roadmap to Media Freedom’ wall is for the public to express their media wish list.

“After all, the purpose of the free media is to serve public interest and what better way then to find out what they want out of the media,” she told Malaysiakini.

Orders from the ministry

The exhibition also features the mainstream papers being hung out to dry as they were pinned on a laundry line by clothes pegs.

Written on it was the CIJ’s media monitoring initiative that calculated how much news were pro-Barisan Nasional, the ruling coalition, during the 12th General Election campaign.

Aside from the participatory exhibition, volunteers were seen selling books, other publications, cookies and CIJ paraphernalia.

There are various forums that are slotted in the two-day event including public talks on ethical media and information law reform.

Over a hundred people packed the small exhibition room with little standing room left when the public talk on ethical media took place.

One of the speakers was The Sun’s political and consultant editor Zainon Ahmad who shared with the audience restraints the paper faced during the mass public rally by election watchdog Bersih calling for a free and fair elections late last year.

“As the procession was going on, we were informed by the internal Security Ministry to play down the event and to limit the story only to one picture and 10 paragraphs,” he said.

However, when they abided by the same condition during the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) rally that took place shortly after the Bersih rally, Zainon said the paper was blasted by the ministry for not playing up the story.

“It shows that even the Home Ministry (that has absorbed the Internal Security Ministry under it) itself does not have a foggiest idea how the media should behave,” he mused to a tickled audience.

Zainon pointed out that it is hard to have an ethical media when the laws and media ownership they are restricted to are not ethical themselves.

“We received instructions during the elections that if the opposition say nice things, don’t report them but if they say controversial things, then we can report it.

“Most papers are owned by concerned parties in power and instructions are that the papers need to be kind to BN.

“You cannot say we were unethical because the orders that were given to us were unethical,” he related.

However, he said the media needs to respect the public right to the truth and media ownership needs to be legislated.

“Papers should not be owned by political parties or interests close to them. Anti-establishment can help shape a more ethical media,” he said.

Good response

Also present was former Sun journalist Jacqueline Ann Surin who was also launching her book, ‘Shape of a Pocket’ that collates her writing from her award-winning column of the same name.

Gayathry who chaired the talk was encouraged by the response from the audience and hopes that the press laws will one day be abolished.

“The response is very good. We're definitely happy with the number of people here.

“I think as long as the laws are there, it is very difficult to champion for a free press. That’s why the focus of our work is really to try and remove the laws.

“If you can at least remove it one by one, then you can start opening up the space. As long as the laws are there, the freedom really is only an illusion,” she said.

Activities and the exhibition will run until tomorrow at the venue.

Watch the 10-minute video in Malaysiakini.tv.