mymedia02 - Media a party to ‘window dressing’

Tuesday March 20 Media a party to ‘window dressing’ Leong Kar Yen 8:28pm, Tue: The mainstream media has lost much of their credibility because they took instructions from the authorities, said a senior journalist today. According to national news agency Bernama, New Straits Times group editor Ahmad Talib said that “the media cannot really report the truth because of various restrictions”. “So the media is made a party to this window dressing,” he said after a closed-door dialogue between National Unity and Social Development Minister Dr Siti Zaharah Sulaiman and a number of media executives today. Ahmad said that because the media had been too often told to downplay certain issues and by complying with such orders, they ended up losing their credibility. He added the credibility of the media appeared to suffer along with those groups whose credibility are also in question, such as the judiciary, police, politicians and even ulama. This has resulted in many Malaysians turning to the Internet for alternative news and the propensity to believe in rumours. According to Ahmad, problems such as race relations should not be swept under the carpet and the media should be allowed to report the truth. Self-censorship Former senior minister Ghazali Shafie, who was a party to the dialogue session, said that the loss of credibility among the mainstream media is also due to self-censorship. “You have to examine why you have lost your credibility. Are there too many rules governing the media? Is there too much self-censorship? You have to restore your credibility,” he said. Bernama also reported that Siti Zaharah had expressed surprise that media have been working under such constraints. She said that the racial clashes in Petaling Selatan could have been curtailed if the media had given the incident accurate coverage. To date, police said that six have died, more than 40 injured and over 220 arrested in the clashes which began on March 9 and abated four days later. Berita Harian group editor Ahmad Rejal Arbee said that the racial clashes could have been defused much earlier if the media were given correct information. “It took a few days before what actually happened was officially told to the media,” he said. Meanwhile, Utusan Malaysia senior news editor Aziz Ishak lamented the weakness in crisis management by the authorities. “As far as the flow of information to the media is concerned, the incidents were not well handled and we need to do something about this,” said Aziz. Siti Zaharah said that she would have regular meetings with the press to ensure that they are able to report events accurately.