Wednesday January 19, 2011

TV3’s segment on breast enlargement causes a stir

KOSMO! highlighted a report about an ulamak (religious scholar) questioning a segment in TV3’s “Wanita Hari Ini” women’s programme, which aired an open discussion about breast enlargement procedures.

Religious speaker Datuk Mohd Che Daud said the station made an inappropriate move to discuss the matter in public, when it should have been discussed in private.

He also said breast enlargement procedures were haram (forbidden) and chided television stations for being influenced by Western norms of openly talking about sensitive matters.

Universiti Teknologi Mara media studies and communications faculty senior lecturer Dr Siti Zabedah Mohd Shariff concurred with Mohd Che Daud’s argument, saying that the show was debating a trivial issue which violated a woman’s dignity.

“Imam Muda” reality programme winner Muhammad Asyraf also said guidelines should be imposed on such shows, which could create negative implications for Muslims.

The show’s official Facebook fan page also received criticism from female viewers who said they felt uncomfortable with the issue being talked about openly. It was also embarrassing to women, they said.

They objected to the use of models, who were fully attired but the cameras had focused on their chests to visualise the topic being discussed.

> The Malay dailies also highlighted a speculative report about popular celebrity couple and winner of a dancing reality programme Vanidah Imran and Rashidi Ishak, who were seen at a syariah court on Monday.

However, media attempts to get comments from the couple at a counter dealing with divorce, custody and alimony cases were to no avail.

Kosmo! had earlier reported that seven celebrity couples who participated in the programme had filed for divorce, with the latest casualties being Syed Hussein Syed Mustafa and Noor Diyana Muhammad.

Syed Hussein, 27, better known as Sein, was a member of the five-men music group Ruffedge, while 26-year-old Noor Diyana (or Nana) is the daughter of former Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Muhammad Muhammad Taib.

> Harian Metro highlighted a report about a local singer and actress, who was popular in the 90s, getting hitched to an actor in Thailand.

The daily quoted a source from the Selangor Islamic Religious Department who said that the department had cancelled a plan to raid the actress’ home in Taman Keramat after the actor, who is in his 40s, turned up at the religious office and produced their marriage certificate which was issued in Thailand,

The source said the case would be referred to the Federal Territory Religious Department for prosecution and the couple would be brought to the Federal Territory Syariah court this Friday for trial.

Other News & Views is compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a >, it denotes a separate news item.

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