Utusan tops as the most pro-BN paper

The election media monitor initiative, organised by the Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ), Writers Alliance for Media Independence (WAMI) and Charter 2000-Aliran confirmed that major print media continue to the line of the incumbent government, formed by the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, in their election coverage by allocating the majority of stories and spaces for their candidates.

The bias toward BN effected a significant amount of news and news spaces being dedicated to BN candidates- their background and what they said, as well as the portrayal of imminent electoral victory for BN. In contrast, issues that are of interest to the voters- analysis of the parties manifesto, the track record of the party etc, issues with the Indian community were given very little space. After the candidates, other main issues covered were chiefly the questions of the new Penang chief minister and attacks on the oppositions.

Among the six newspapers covered- The Star, NST, theSun, Utusan Malaysia, Malaysia Nanban and Makkal Osai - the order of the percentages of space dedicated to pro-BN stories is as follows - Utusan Malaysia at 82%, Malaysia Nanban at 70%, Makkal Osai at 66%, The Star at 63%, NST at 60%, and theSun at 43%. Interestingly, Makkal Osai, which is yet to get a new publication permit for 2008, also has the highest percentage of space for pro-Opposition stories at 23%.

CIJ Executive Director, Gayathry Venkiteswaran said the electoral setback of the BN despite the pro BN media is a strong indicator of the public rejecting the media's propagandist approach and the need to change the editorial policy. She recommeded that the Malaysian media change along three lines- return to the ethical and profesional standards of fairness, objectivity, balance and accuracy, more competition in the form of more media being allowed, and doing away with the laws that restrict the media.

The election media monitoring initiative covered the period from a week before the nomination day until the day of the election. However, for the purpose of the report the results analysed were from the period between 25 Feb- 8 March. Analysis by volunteers are available on http://www.aliran.com/elections.

Attached with the statement is the executive summary of the findings. The full report is available in CDs and to be distributed upon request.

Issued by
Centre for Independent Journalism

For more information, please contact Wai Fong at 03 4023 0772 or waifong@cijmalaysia.org

Last minute ad bombardment

On the eve of polling day (7 March 2008), Malaysian newspapers stepped up the number of advertisements to “persuade” voters to cast their ballots for Barisan Nasional. Although the reporting trend has generally been in favour of the BN, the ads have also been generously displayed.

theSun beat its English-language rivals to publish BN ads in 14 pages, up 80 per cent from earlier in the week. The NST and The Star increased the pages for the advertisements by 77 per cent and 71.4 per cent respectively, while Utusan Malaysia, a broadsheet upped the ads from one page on Monday to five full pages on polling eve. These three papers have higher story counts that are pro-BN in general. Only theSun published a one-page ad for the DAP on page 38 with its slogan `Just Change It'.

The ad campaign is further supported by full-page messages, in colour, from different ministries and agencies, such as the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry, Mampu and the Employees Provident Fund, during the election campaign period,. Special pullouts have also been published focusing on the performance of government agencies like Felda, Felcra and Permodalan Nasional Berhad.

Midnight on the eve of polling is not necessarily the end of the campaign, as we know, BN “messages” flow through the media even during the non-election period.

Individu dari parti politik mahu akhbar ditutup

Individu dalam parti politik adalah antara cabaran kepada wartawan dan media di mana pemimpin-pemimpin yang tidak suka dengan pelaporan berita mahukan suratkhabar ditutup.

Itulah “saranan” Setiausaha Bahagian MIC Durian Tunggal di Alor Gajah, Rajen yang berkata ketiga-ketiga akhbar Tamil patut ditutup selama enam bulan kerana melaporkan berita palsu. Dengan penutupan ini, maka masyarakat India akan sedar tentang diri mereka dan akan menjadi rakyat yang lebih berguna. Menurut Rajen, yang dipetik oleh akhbar Malaysia Nanban (muka depan) dan Makkal Osai (muka 3) pada Mac, hanya akhbar Melayu, Inggeris dan Cina yang melaporkan kebenaran.

Rajen sememangnya mencontohi presiden parti S Samy Vellu yang banyak memberi tekanan terhadap kedua-dua akhbar secara langsung dan tidak langsung. Antara isu yang didedahkan oleh akhbar-akhbar ini yang tidak menyenangkan Samy Vellu adalah kisah Maika Holdings, kematian artis Sujatha yang disyaki berkaitan dengan anak Samy Vellu, masalah sekolah Tamil dan penyelewengan dalam MIC. Beberapa orang wartawan pernah diancam oleh individu yang berkait dengan MIC atau yang tidak senang dengan isu yang dibangkitkan.

Menurut laporan yang dikeluarkan oleh Pusat Kewartawanan Bebas, CIJ lebih daripada 60 peratus berita di Makkal Osai dan Malaysia Nanban adalah berita pro-BN, terutamanya MIC. Malah, dalam minggu terakhir sebelum hari pengundian, peratusan berita mengenai pilihanraya yang pro-BN melebihi 80 peratus. Sekiranya terdapat rasa tidak puas hati dengan laporan, langkah yang perlu diambil ialah menhubungi akhbar berkenaan dan cuba mendapatkan pembetulan jika terdapat kesilapan fakta. Tindakan meminta akhbar ditutup amat tidak demokratik dan hanya memberikan ruang kepada jentera parti BN untuk membuli akhbar yang kritikal terhadapnya.

Di manakah kebebasan media di Malaysia? Adakah media tidak bebas untuk menerbitkan kebenaran dan penyelewengan yang berlaku di Malaysia?

Khairy, Chandra’s legal woes get more coverage in cyberspace

Stories covering both Parti Keadilan Rakyat de-facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as well as the retraction of indelible ink use by the Elections Commission dominated both mainstream and online coverage for 6 March. That is where the similarities ended. The knowledge reached and perceptions formed by readers in regards to these topics will have relied greatly on whether they took information from the dailies or from alternative, online news sources.

Malaysiakini posted “RM110mil law suite against Khairy, Chandra” in the early evening of 5 March—an article detailing the legal action, in the form of a defamation suit, potentially being filed by Anwar Ibrahim against Umno Youth deputy chief Khairy Jamaluddin and former PKR deputy president Chandra Muzaffar over alleged derogatory and nonfactual comments made against him at a 20 Feb ceramah and published in a 4 Mar New Straits Times article. The report outlines how Khairy, at the Lembah Pantai ceramah, “gave listeners the impression that Anwar is a homosexual, and a man of low morals who also has no Islamic values”. According to the Malaysiakini article, comments made by Chandra at a forum on 3 March and published in the NST the next day, “implied that Anwar ‘was and is promoting and inciting racial hatred amongst the races in Malaysia”. Anwar has since filed the suit against Chandra for RM10 million in damages.

Not surprisingly, this story was completely distorted by the English dailies. All three - theSun, New Straits Times, and Star - approached the story from the angle of Chandra’s defence, relaying how Chandra defended his comments in a response letter to Anwar’s lawyer: “I do not find any reason whatsoever to retract any of the statements that I have made…”. The remarks were apparently “fully borne out by facts and information within [Chandra’s] personal knowledge” (theSun). The NST published similar statements in its page 6 story, while the Star avoided direct quotations altogether in its tiny article, buried all the way down on page 35. None of the mainstream publications bothered to describe the nature of the remarks, while theSun devotes its expansive, front-page article to further Anwar-bashing by Chandra.

Then again, “Bashing Anwar” seemed to be the theme of the day.

If you read only the mainstream publications, you might think that Anwar Ibrahim had recently grovelled at the feet of Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi for re-entry into Umno. “Umno does not want Anwar” and “We don’t want Anwar back” screamed the headlines from the second and fourth pages of NST and The Star respectively. These articles reported on the Umno rally, featuring Barisan leaders in Penang’s Rifle Range, allegedly held in an attempt to win the Chinese vote. Devoting not one or even two, but five articles to this particular ceramah, The The Star regurgitated the assaults made against both Anwar’s and Guan Eng’s characters by Barisan Nasional leaders, including Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. Both publications emphasised the large turnout: The Star vaguely and repeatedly cited “thousands” of people while the NST inflated the number to “more than 10,000”.

In comparison, the Malaysiakini entry, “BN bashes Anwar, Guan Eng”, estimated the number of people present at 3,500. In addition, the article placed Abdullah Badawi’s statement, “the party can’t accept [Anwar] back, no way! We have enough leaders, no need to wait for him to come back,” in context with the 1998 sacking of the former Deputy Prime Minister under Mahathir Mohamad’s rule. Further, Malaysiakini acknowledged the contradiction in Abdullah's comments which followed an initial declaration at the onset of his speech: ““I don’t need to talk about Anwar, he is not important to me, he is not important to Umno.” All of these details were missing from the mainstream publications, which seemed to relish in the BN’s “salvo” against the opposition. Ironically, “Crowd size doesn’t matter” on page 36 of The Star dismissed the large number of supporters drawn by DAP adviser, Lim Kit Siang, at a recent ceramah and demonised the opposition for engaging in “personal attacks”.

Human rights group joins opposition in “baying outrage” over indelible ink reversal

For a second time, Malaysia.msn.com brought an AFP report concerning human rights in Malaysia to the attention of the public. Previously, Malaysia.msn.com featured an AFP story citing Malaysia’s dismal performance on Reporter’s Without Borders’ Press Freedom Index. This time, the AFP article—subsequently posted on Malaysiakini, Malaysia-today, and Jeff Ooi’s Screenshots—featured statements from New York-based human rights group, Human Rights Watch, on the Election Commission’s decision to retract the use of indelible ink. In the “Breaking News” story box, the article’s headline, “Activists warn Malaysian elections will be 'dirtiest ever,'” loomed over a picture of a hazy Kuala Lumpur skyline.

On the scrapping of the ink process, Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi has declared the decision unfortunate but unavoidable, and lamented that the opposition “is happy because now they have an excuse to tell the whole world why they cannot succeed in the election”. But Human Rights Watch is not buying it. According to the AFP report, HRW has said that “Malaysians will be denied a fair vote in Saturday's general election” and is “accusing the government of muzzling the opposition and manipulating the electoral process.” This is a significant claim, as HRW is an organisation known to deal with severe violations of human rights. Yet, the mainstream publications reflected Abdullah Badawi’s “no-big-deal” attitude.

The Star gave the issue little coverage and provided statements on the issue from ruling coalition leaders only. The NST provided more information, including the MCA’s criticism of the EC for failing to identify and solve problems sooner. Malaysiakini provided a full article on the MCA’s criticism, “MCA raps commission over indelible ink reversal”. As a notable example of mainstream bias, the NST's editorial “Smear Campaign,” dubbed the indelible ink “a bad idea to begin with” and referred to the opposition as a “sundry cohort of anti-establishmentarians that are baying outrage” over the reversal of its use.

All in all, the mainstream press presented an extremely nonchalant attitude about the issue despite the clear potential for human rights violations as highlighted by HRW. But only citizens with internet access would be exposed to this international criticism avoided by the mainstream papers. At least its placement on Malaysia.msn.com could potentially catch the attention of even the least politically inclined. Another improvement was the absence of the interactive Barisan Nasional political advertisement which did not dance on the public’s screens toay.

Malaysiakini’s Open House

Malaysiakini is offering free access to all of its online news services from 4-10 March, in an effort to provide voters with independent news so they can make an informed choice on polling day. Editor-in-chief Steven Gan said the news service aimed “to play our part in helping Malaysians exercise their democratic right".

theSun: Newspaper or BN pamphlet?

Today's Sun has flooded its pages with BN ads. Out of 56 pages in the paper, 14 full pages are devoted to BN adverts and just one page to the DAP.

The DAP full-page ad only appears on page 38, after all 14 pages of the BN adverts have appeared in preceding pages.

So not only does the Sun allow the BN to overwhelm the opposition in terms of number of ads, the opposition party also loses out in the sense that it is relegated to page 38.

So much for the independence of theSun. Perhaps today's edition should not be considered a newspaper. You could call it a BN pamphlet interspersed with news.