Hindraf Rose rally dominates online coverage

The 16 February Hindraf Rose Rally continued to dominate online coverage. Of special interest is an AFP report, posted on Malaysiakini on 17 February at 3:15pm, entitled “Anwar criticises government over rally crackdown.” After briefly outlining the events and their context as well as Anwar’s criticism of the use of chemically-laced water cannons, the AFP reported that “lawyers claimed a female protester - one of nine who are being held till Monday - was abused in custody.” According to the report, the woman claimed to have been beaten by police and denied medical treatment. Notably, this AFP report was the featured story on Malaysia.msn.com today.

But mention of the alleged police abuse against the Hindraf supporter was nowhere to be found within today’s top three English newspapers. The Star featured a 50 square cm article at the bottom of page N24 merely outlining the charges facing eight of the nine detained demonstrators. On the other hand, the NST’s article, “Hindraf members may be charged,” highlighted an allegedly hospitalised police officer who “injured his leg from a fall after he was pushed by a demonstrator”, according to police chief Muhammad Sabtu Osman. The article also featured a paraphrase of Sabtu’s defence for using the water cannon, saying that “it had to be deployed as the demonstrators refused to budge”.

Anwar’s statement condemning the police response was not featured in either the Star or the NST. The mainstream publications instead emphasised that the demonstration was “illegal”, supported the actions of the police, and depicted demonstrators as violent, irrational people, promoting fear and contempt amongst the general public.

A People’s Parliament entry – linked to by Malaysia Today – entitled “On Hindraf: Looks like Abdullah, sounds like KJ,” highlighted three examples of biased, mainstream media publications followed by commentary debunking the statements. Helen Ang points out that all three were written by “MSM writers who look Indian or whose names sound Indian”. The general nature of the excerpts is that the Indian Malaysian community is neither marginalised nor do its members receive fewer educational or financial opportunities than the rest of population. While Ang's excerpt selection, supplemented with statements from Khairy condemning unlawful gatherings is effective, she did not provide any verifiable facts that may have strengthened her illustration. Nevertheless, the three readers who commented on the article seemed to agree with the alleged absurdity of the excerpts’ claims.

Sparking debate amongst readers was the Malaysia Today posting of a police report against S. Samy Vellu accusing him of lying about a public project contract. Raja Petra mused on whether or not such an offence could prevent the MIC president from contesting in the election. The 23 readers' comments fell along a broad spectrum, from mere “Samy-bashing” to detailed opinions and reasoning as to why the report will not prevent Samy from contesting. No mention of the police report against Samy Vellu was found in the mainstream coverage.

Jelas.info features a Youtube video of Malaysiakini's coverage of the Hindraf demonstration. Nathaniel Tan highlights how Badawi supporters also congregated, chanted and waved posters at the event; yet, they were not faced with retaliation from the authorities.