Utusan's favourites or repeats?

While it is regular for Utusan to give more space to BN, some candidates and events get extra attention. Readers are familiarised with certain candidates who are repeatedly covered in a dedicated article. Indeed, the Utusan of 1 March may have had the most instances of these recurring subjects.

Recurring subject No. 1- Yayasan Khazanah tawar tiga program biasiswa on page 4. On 29 February, on page 16, there was Biasiswa Khazanah Merdeka taja 25 pelajar setiap tahun. The difference between the two is that the earlier was a news coverage, the later was quoted from a media statement.

Recurring subject No. 2 - Aziz pernah belajar bersama Nik Aziz. Aziz Jamaludin Mhd. Tahir, candidate for Titiwangsa, got his first article on 28ruary Feb titled Aziz kempen guna kereta hidrogen.

On the same page as Aziz (page 4) was recurring subject No. 3 - Hoi Keong hanya mahu berbakti. The candidate for the Kepong parliamentary seat appeared again on page 12 - Hoi Keong azam bawa IPT ke Kepong. The first article was an introduction to Lau, while the second was about his promises.

Recurring subject No. 4 was the candidate for the Baling parliamentary seat, Azeez Abdul Rahim. Azeez seems to be the golden boy of Utusan. He has had his fourth appearance in the newspaper with all articles focusing on him only. On page nine (1 March), the article about him was titled - Azeez mahir bahasa Tamil, not much different from an article on 21 February - Azeez fasih bahasa Tamil. The other articles about him were also not different from each other - Azeez mahu bina modal insan (26 February) and Pembangunan modal insan fokus Azeez (23 February).

For 1 March, news about BN formed 89 per cent of the total news items on elections; the rest were news items about the opposition.

The figures do not include the two full-page advertorials on the Ministry of Rural and Regional Development, which also received a favourable review in the editorial pages. In the editorial section, six other articles were also about the BN, while one contained stinging criticism against Nurul Izzah, PKR's candidate for Lembah Pantai.