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| Blog puts media on notice
Election media monitoring in the run-up to Malaysia’s 11th general election: the Charter 2000-Aliran experience
by Mustafa K Anuar
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As before, the mainstream media were located in a political context where the head of the incumbent Umno and Barisan Nasional, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, the newly annointed successor to Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, was faced with a gigantic task. He had to garner a huge vote from the electorate to reinforce and consolidate his position especially in Umno. In other words, there was every reason for the dominant BN to lean on the mainstream media in its relentless struggle to win the hearts and minds of the Malaysian voters. Launching the blog Charter2000-Aliran launched its media monitoring blog, with the help of a group of dedicated volunteers, all of whom were concerned about media bias. The blog, it was envisaged, would keep track of news coverage and critically examine whether the media, both print and electronic, had been ethical in reporting news in the run-up to the election. As citizens of this country, Malaysians have every right to demand fair media coverage so that voters can make informed choices when casting their ballot. It was therefore crucial that we investigate whether each of the contesting political parties got a fair hearing in the mass media. The media coverage should be fair, professional, unbiased and ethical. What this means is that there must be:
Blow-by-blow The media monitors' blog provided the much-needed space for online, critical examination of the mainstream media in the run-up to the general election. Comments on the reporting could be made and publicised on the very day the reporting by the media concerned was made. Equally important, the blog is interactive in nature in that it allows for the prompt response of visitors to the weblog. This, we found, was very useful because there were a number of visitors to the weblog who had made interesting and constructive observations regarding the media coverage. For instance, a Sarawakian visitor to the weblog remarked that the picture of the two Ibans who were front-paged by the New Straits Times appeared to be staged. This is because, according to the observer, Ibans don’t normally don their traditional attire in their everyday life especially when they go to work. The blog also enabled us to share certain information that is less accessible to many of us for reasons of physical distance or language. For example, a monitor from Sabah managed to send us photos extracted from The Borneo Post that showed the police force in Kota Kinabalu doing their practices purportedly preparing themselves for any eventuality in their endeavour to maintain peace in the state. This act was a veiled attempt to intimidate the voters, especially aimed at those who were inclined to vote for the political parties contesting against the dominant Barisan Nasional. Through the blog, we were also able to share with other concerned Malaysians knowledge of what was covered in the Chinese press and TV news bulletins pertaining to the election campaigning. For example, the offer of developmental goodies by the caretaker government was well publicised by the Chinese media. Financial allocations for development were announced and promised to certain groups of villagers by certain ministers in clear violation of the notion of a caretaker government. To be sure, other non-Chinese mainstream media also carried such pronouncements. Media bias and censorship We were also able to show, through the contributions of our monitors assigned to observe the various media, that the mainstream media were invariably biased towards the BN and, conversely, unfair to the opposing political parties. For example, even in the so-called war of flags, the flags of the BN were deliberately highlighted more than those of the other contesting parties. The blog also provided an opportunity for us to promptly show that certain newspapers carried different reporting for their different regional editions. For example, The Star on 10 March 2004 reported the unhappiness among the Orang Asli in its northern “Metro” section over the inability of the government to resolve some of their community problems, such as securing rights to their land. As we observed then, the impact would have been greater had this report been made by the daily concerned nationally. Confining such an important issue to a particular region of the country borders on censorship. Reading between the lines This time around the use of political advertising was very much pronounced. In line with the image of a caring Pak Lah, some of the political advertisements used in promoting the BN did manage to convey this benign picture. And the supposed caring philosophy of the BN was further reinforced through the deliberate demonisation of the opposing parties via certain advertisements. The commentaries posted on the blog apparently might not have totally fallen on deaf ears, especially among media practitioners. For example, in his regular column on 7 March 2004, the chief editor of the Chinese Oriental Daily remarked that his newspaper was willing to be monitored by our media monitors. Finally, the blog is a useful instrument for media literacy. It is hoped that through concrete examples of media distortion and unfairness during the election campaign, readers would in future be able to “read” the media in a more critical fashion, particularly in a context where the mainstream media are inclined to leave the readers with no choice but to read in between the lines. Now e-mail us and tell us what you think. | |||||||||||||||
We were also able to show, through the contributions of our monitors assigned to observe the various media, that the mainstream media were invariably biased towards the BN and, conversely, unfair to the opposing political parties.
