Professional Documents
Culture Documents
FREEDOM OF
PRESS IN
MALAYSIA?
By
PARVEEN GILL
(former journalist, The Star/Malay Mail)
Dpt. Of Modern Languages
SHAHPUTRA COLLEGE
Tan Sri Harun Mahmud Hashim
He said the media should also not feel apologetic when reporting the
facts.
Abdullah said that faced with a very challenging world economy and
the people feeling the pressures of life, it was most important that the
Government’s efforts and proactive measures be well disseminated.
BERNAMA
Thursday September 4, 2008
WHY ARE MALAYSIAN
JOURNALISTS CRYING FOUL?
During the American Reveloution, a free press was identified by Revolutionary leaders
as one of the elements of liberty that they sought to preserve. The Virginia Declaration
of Rights (1776) proclaimed that "the freedom of the press is one of the greatest
bulwarks of liberty and can never be restrained but by despotic governments."
Similarly, the Constitution of Massachusetts (1780) declared, "The liberty of the
press is essential to the security of freedom in a state: it ought not, therefore, to
be restrained in this commonwealth."
What does it mean?
In the Unites States of America, the government cannot act in advance to stop you from
saying, printing, or broadcasting, but can hold you accountable afterwards. In Malaysia,
journalists and newspapers face legal and extra legal challenges that make it difficult if not
impossible to report fair and accurately, without fear.
WHAT ARE THE PROBLEMATIC
LAWS HINDERING JOURNALIST
FROM CARRYING OUT THEIR
DUTIES WITH FEAR?
1. Official Secrets Act allows for official
documents, materials or information to be
classified as top secret, for reasons that cannot be
questioned in court.
In Malaysia, getting the information one needs is often a tedious affair and
can be downright frustrating not just for journalists but for the man in the
street because there are no Freedom of Information (FOI) laws.
Since the mid-1970s, there have been calls for FOI laws. DAP Member of
Parliament Lim Kit Siang tried, unsuccessfully, to move a Private Member’s
Bill on FOI in 1976. Ten years later, a public campaign against amendments
to the Official Secrets Act took place. And since Suhakam was set up in
1999, several groups, including journalists, have called for the right to
information. TO DATE THE CALL FOR FOI HAS FALLEN ON DEAF EARS.
Zainah on why the Official Secrets Act should be repealed:
There are strong links between an open government and a country’s corruption
level. Notice the number of Scandinavian countries that are on Transparency
International’s recent rankings of the Top 10 least corrupt nations.
“…the countries which are the most corrupt-free, such as Scandinavian countries,
have FOI laws and high levels of openness.”
Tunku Abdul Aziz Tunku Ibrahim
Former president
Transparency International Malaysia
3. 1960 Internal Security Act is one of several which allows the police to
prohibit publication, circulation, and possession of subversive
publications or documents that incite violence, breach of law or peace, or
which jeopardize the country’s national interest or security. It also allows
for detention without trial of people deemed a threat to national security; a
Malaysiakini columnist was detained for two years under this act in
2001.
THE PRINTING PRESSES AND PUBLICATIONS ACT 1984
Wednesday, 10 May 2000
“The Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984 empowers the Minister of Home Affairs
in his absolute discretion to grant to any person a permit to print and publish a newspaper in
Malaysia. The maximum period for which a permit is granted under the Act is 12 months. Any
decision of the Minister to refuse to grant or to suspend a permit shall be final and shall not
be called in question by any court on any ground whatsoever. Under the Act no person shall
be given an opportunity to be heard with regard to his application for a permit.”
“...Whatever may have been the wisdom behind such unparalleled legislative provisions in
the past, it cannot be justified in the current environment in which the Government is encouraging
the development of the Multimedia Super Corridor in which it is virtually impossible to impose
censorship.”
(The Malaysian bar council Public statement on press freedom in Malaysia/ May 10, 2000)
IMPLICATIONS:
“KUALA LUMPUR: The Home Ministry has decided not to renew the
publication permit of Tamil daily Makkal Osai. The newspaper's general
manager S.M. Periasamy said that they were informed of the decision by a
telephone call from the Home Ministry Wednesday morning. "When I went to
the ministry to check if this was true, they handed me the letter rejecting the
renewal of our licence," he said. The letter did not state any reasons for the
rejection.”
IMPLICATIONS:
1. January 2008
Syed Jaymal Zahiid, a correspondent for the online news
provider Malaysiakini was arrested and charged for obstructing a
police officer while he was covering a demonstration protesting
high food costs in Kuala Lumpur in January 2008.
Pending Criminal Case on June 14
2. December, 2001
The Sun newspaper had front-paded an acticle about the alleged assaissination plot
againt (the then) Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohammad and Home
Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, courting police sources, on December 25, 200.
Dec 26 - PM and DPM denied report saying story could potentially damage Malaysia's
international reputation and discourage foreign investment.
The same day, officials at the Ministry of Home Affairs called a meeting with The Sun’s
chief news editor, Robert Ho.
Dec 27, The Sun published a retraction. Robert Ho, reporter R. Manirajan, and
photographer Anita Mohamad Nasir had been suspended.
Dec 27, another senior editor named Andy Ng resigned from the paper to protest
the suspension of his colleagues. The Board of Directors appointed a shareholder with
no editorial experience to replace Ng. The new editor then suspended the managing
Editor Cheng Chong Hai. Ng and the other editors have consistently stood by
the December 25 story, saying that government officials verified the report.
DEFAMATION
1. Datuk Sharifah Aini Syed Jaafar filed a defamation suit against former
entertainment journalist Fauziah Mohd Johar or Zieman in April 2004 over
remarks made in a conversation with journalist Saodah Ismail of the
Agendadaily about the “Johor Ghazal Symphony Concert with Sharifah Anin
at Istana Budaya.”
Oct 29, 2008 High Court struck out suit.
2. MP for Pokok Sena Mahfuz Omar filed a similar suit against Utusan
Melayu Berhad for publishing libelous words in the heading of Utusan
Malaysia newspaper, headline: “Demonstrasi-Mahfuz istihar bersame
Keadilan” on March 4, 2001.
Dec 23, 2008 High Court awarded RM120,000 as damages for libellous words
published against him.
•In Oct 1994, the High Court awarded RM7mil libel award to a business
tycoon Vicent Tan over articles published in a local magazine. The defendants
were journalist M G G Pillai (2 million), editor Hassan Hamzah (3 million), publisher
Media Printext (2 million), printer Ling Wah Press (1 million) and three other
individuals (2 million) for defaming Tan in four Malaysian Industry magazine
articles.
''Low and cheap awards will only send a wrong signal and will become a license
to libel the respondent and other people with impunity,''
Chief Justice Eusoff Chin
''The implications of this judgment on journalism, already parlous in this country,
and journalists, are horrendous. It reduces them to being public relations officers to
the high and mighty. It will now be harder for journalists to probe the often unhealthy
nexus between politics and business.”
Journalist M G G Pillai
THE INTERNAL SECURITY ACT 1960
The power of preventive detention was however not relinquished and in fact
became an embedded feature of Malaysian law. In 1960 itself, the
government passed the Internal Security Act under Article 149 of the
Malaysian Constitution. It permitted the detention, at the discretion of the
Home Minister, without charge or trial of any person in respect of whom
the Home Minister was satisfied that such detention was necessary to
prevent him or her from acting in any manner prejudicial to national
security or to the maintenance of essential services or to the economic
life in Malaysia.
IMPLICATIONS:
On Sept 13, 2008, Sin Chew Daily reporter Tan Hoon Cheng was arrested
under the Internal Security Act (ISA) in Penang. The reason for her arrest
under ISA was because she had writen an article, reporting that former Bukit
Bendera Umno division chief Datuk Ahmad Ismail had made racist
remarks while campaiging for the Permatang Pauh by-election. Lee
Kelvin from Guang Ming and Tan Ming Xau from Nanyang Siang Pau had
vouched for the accuracy of Tan’s report.
Dire Straits – Cold off the Press
Jan 4, 2002
Online Asia Times
DEC 29, 2001:
"PM satisfied with resignations of the EditorinChief and the Editor
of The Sun”
satisfied with the toplevel editorial resignations in the Sun. There
should be no criminal prosecution of any kind arising from the incident
but a full explanation as to how such a frontpage story came to be
published by senior and experienced journalist cannot be accused of
being antinational elements would be the conditions and culture under
which Malaysian journalists have to work.
DEC 30, 2001:
"DPM accepts The Sun's apology".
Malaysian Leader Won't Lift Shutdown of a Popular Daily
THE NEW YORK TIMES
November 8, 1987
LEAD: The Government of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad
has rejected an appeal by The Star against the shutdown of the
popular English-language daily on Oct. 28.
The Prime Minister told reporters in Kuala Lumpur Friday that the press had
been contributing to racial tensions in Malayasia by printing too much
on sensitive topics, according to the official press agency.
An Associate Editor
Mainstream Media
Feb, 2009