Thursday March 29, 2007

Please, sir, don’t press the media

ALONG THE WATCHTOWER
BY VEERA PANDIYAN

WHY should any one be allowed to buy a printing press and disseminate pernicious opinions calculated to embarrass the government? This sounds like a nice question to endear me to the powers that be, doesn't it?

Actually, it was asked 87 years ago, by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, leader of Russia’s Bolshevik (later Communist) Party and founder of the dismantled Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).

The USSR, as we know, folded up in 1991. Among the major reasons contributing to its demise were the watershed changes in information flow brought about by new technologies. Millions of people, fed with propagandist rhetoric for decades, gradually gained valuable access to alternative news and views.

In 1985, party leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who foresaw the end looming, introduced two radical policies – perestroika (restructuring) and glasnost (openness) – to preserve the decaying union and its power structure.

But history has repeatedly taught us that corrective measures are useless if taken too late. Perestroika and glasnost did zilch to restore the regime's integrity and its grip on a once-omnipotent empire.

Today, people expect to get information at lightning speed. News and stories come via text and picture messages on mobile phones, iPods, PDAs, news websites and blogs, besides the traditional sources – news services, cable television, radio and newspapers. They spread juicy rumours just as fast, but that's another story.

As such, it’s dismaying to hear boorish statements from our ministers about the kind of information we should or should not absorb. Surely, they can't be that oblivious to the colossal shifts in information flow?

Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Mansor was soundly censured for his remarks that bloggers were liars and comprised mostly unemployed women. He later clarified that his words were not meant for all who blogged but aimed only at one young Indonesian woman.

Information Minister Datuk Seri Zainuddin Maidin's warning to the print media last week came as another shock, especially with him being a former journalist and recipient of last year's Tokoh Wartawan (Eminent Journalist) award.

Last week, he urged the local media not to quote from blogs as such information was not “authoritative.” Bloggers, he cautioned, might be “provocative, politically motivated, inaccurate or just floating rumours for the interests of certain parties.”

With due respect, sir, as a veteran of the vocation, surely you would agree that the same sins have been and still are being committed by opportunistic hacks skulking in newsrooms and television stations. Black sheep can be found everywhere, even in lofty places where they masquerade as mountain goats.

Fairness is the prerequisite of responsible journalism. This includes checking the credibility of sources, verifying information and letting the other side to have its say. Ethical editors have always adhered to these basic rules.

Ideally, bloggers, too, should be bound by the same ethics. But they can also choose not to, and face the risk of being sued.

The media have to keep pace with the current demands of their audience. The irreversible reality of today is this: people want to be in control of what they want to see, hear, perceive and believe. And they also want to add their two sen of worth of views and rants.

In case some of our politicians haven't noticed, newspapers now come in tandem with interactive online versions, offering more space for readers to post comments or send text messages.

Could they also be unaware that an increasing number of newspaper readers also visit blogs and websites to get a wider view of what is going on around them?

For the record, there are an estimated 100 million bloggers in the world today and their numbers are growing, especially in Malaysia, where more than 11 million – a third of the population – access the Internet.

Since statements by Cabinet members can have far-reaching consequences on the country's image, maybe it is time that the less web-savvy among them catch up on current ICT realities. Surely, they don't want to be ketinggalan zaman (outdated)?

On the bright side, people in the establishment are regarding the New Media as something positive. Former Deputy Prime Minister Tun Musa Hitam, who launched a book on Tun Dr Ismail Rahman last week, apparently thanked God for “Digital Democracy.”

More MPs are venturing into blogosphere, among them Johor Baru MP Datuk Shahrir Abdul Samad, who has rekindled his site after a long break.

Opposition leader Lim Kit Siang (Ipoh Timur) as well as fellow MPs Tan Seng Giaw (Kepong), Teresa Kok (Seputeh) and Fong Po Kuan (Batu Gajah) can be considered old hands. Gerakan is reportedly keen to start its own blog sites and so is MCA Youth.

Younger Barisan Nasional MPs are also offering more hope for media freedom. For example, Kota Melaka representative Wong Nai Chee's speech at the start of the first meeting of the Dewan Rakyat last week was indeed a breath of fresh air.

While supporting the motion to thank the King for his royal address, the first-term MP called for a select committee to promote press freedom and amend the laws that hinder the media.

Stressing the need to review arbitrary powers to revoke the permits of media firms, he said the Printing and Presses Act, Sedition Act, Official Secrets Act and the Internal Security Act overlap as well as create an atmosphere of media self-censorship based on fear.

Wong said he was not proposing absolute freedom but only wanted the media to project the real situation in the country without fear or favour, and that press freedom would create an open society and allow accurate information to be disseminated, enabling the country to be better administered.

It will be most welcome to have more such rational voices in Parliament.

One of the first things that Deputy News Editor M. Veera Pandiyan learned as a cadet journalist was this eloquent quote by renowned British newspaper publisher Lord Northcliffe (1865-1922): “News is what somebody somewhere wants to suppress, the rest is advertising.”

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