Radio 24 attempts balanced reporting

...but let's see how long this lasts. The all-news radio station, Radio 24, under the national news agency Bernama, is sending mixed signals to listeners as it has the potential to offer diverse perspectives while still following the mould of the “Prime Minister first” in most mainstream media.

Last week's monitoring showed that while the majority of the news during the hourly broadcast was skewed towards the Barisan Nasional, there were independent analyses by academics and an analyst. On 14 and 15 February, Radio 24 interviewed two academics from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia: Associate Profesor Dr Mohammad Agus Yusof, head of the political science department and Prof Datuk Dr. Shamsul Amri Baharuddin, director of the Institute of Occidental Studies. Prof Shamsul said while the campaigning period was sufficient, there were many issues that the public found worrying; corruption and the efficiency of the public delivery system. Dr. Agus expected an exciting contest in the elections but noted issues such as justice and price hikes would influence voters.

On 15 February, JUST director Dr. Chandra Muzaffar was interviewed on his expectations of the elections. He spoke about the absence of the euphoria that Abdullah Ahmad Badawi capitalised on during the 2004 elections. Throughout the day, Radio 24 also played sound bites from an interview with their regular business analyst, Anthony Dass from Inter Pacific Research on the impact of the elections on the market. The lengthy interview during the midday business report indicated the weight of Dass's analysis, which was based on a comparison of the election period since the 1980s. He said the market performed well the week before the elections except for 1986, and concluded that while there has been a trend for the market to do well with a BN victory, the upward trend could be neutralised by current global economic challenges.

Two aspects that are clearly missing from the comments obtained are alternative perspectives in the discussions elections; and a gender perspective to the issues. It is commendable that the journalists contacted the academics, but the radio can offer spaces for differing and competing views.

Overall, despite the attempts to provide independent analyses, the news items showed obvious pro-BN tendencies. For example five of the eight news stories on Friday were pro-BN. Party leaders such as Najib Abdul Razak, Rafidah Aziz and S. Samy Vellu topped the story list. This was followed by criticisms of PAS's welfare state plan and warnings from the Kelantan police chief that political parties should avoid sensitive issues that could cause ill feelings among the people. It was not obvious who the target of his warning was, although the links to violence have been alleged against opposition parties and civil society groups especially over electoral reforms, minority rights and freedom of religion.

A lengthy interview during a talk show on Friday night with Election Commission secretary Kamaruzzaman Mohd Noor was a defensive attempt to counter civil society campaigns on the need for electoral reform. The journalist was not skilled in questioning the speaker and left it to the EC to advocate their position. Few questions were taken, and Radio 24's method of getting responses through email and SMSes means there is room for filtering.

Radio 24 Bernama was launched just after Merdeka last year; it is the only all-news radio station in the country