Truth often poses a threat to (State) Power
(“Truth”, as the controversial filmmaker, Oliver Stone, suggests in his film, JFK, “often poses a threat to (state) power”.)
Use Google, Yahoo or any search engine of your choice and type in “Malaysiakini.com”. You will in an instant be directed to a neat-looking site filled with informative reports on Malaysia. “News and views that matters” may not capture your attention if you are not Malaysian or interested with the on-goings in Malaysia. However, it would definitely appeal to a Malaysian who is looking for fair reports on their world.
Malaysiakini is a political news website published in English, Malay, Chinese and Tamil. “With that, we are the only media organization which has the capacity to deliver news in all the four major languages across various platforms,” says editor-in-chief Steven Gan. In contrast to the past, the media has now evolved into a medium where technology play a huge role.
Since its launch on November 20, 1999, Malaysiakini has been widely considered to be one of the leading non-government owned paid-news agency in Malaysia. Compete.com (Compete provides information on traffic history, how sites compare against the competition, trust scores, ranked lists etc) estimates that Malaysiakini now attracts over 10,000 unique visitors in May 2009 while Alexa (a powerful tool used to rank website traffic) ranked malaysiakini.com as the 16th most popular web site in Malaysia in 2008.
Malaysiakini is really about the politics of “truth” in Malaysia.
Unlike most news sources in Malaysia, Malaysiakini remains free from government regulation and thus widely considered to be the country’s only credible, independent voice. Malaysiakini has gained both praise and notoriety by regularly covering subjects and viewpoints deemed taboo by the mainstream broadcast and print media; the fact that it is still allowed to operate is partly due to the Malaysian government’s tolerance regarding Internet censorship. The Malaysian government had pledged there would be no control and censorship of Internet content in line with efforts to create the Multimedia Super Corridor (a Government designated zone, designed to leapfrog Malaysia into the information and knowledge age). Therefore, the pledge is the loophole that Malaysiakini is exploiting.
On the matter of Internet censorship…
Although the Malaysian government has promised not to censor the Internet, effectively allowing bloggers to operate without a publishing license, citizen journalists/bloggers are still subject to a wide range of laws.
Part 5, Section 3.5 of the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Content Code states:
“The Online environment is not a legal vacuum. If something is illegal ‘off-line’, it will also be illegal ‘on-line’. In this matter, the relevant existing laws apply”.
In an attempt to encourage on-line journalistic professionalism and self-regulation, a number of local bloggers and citizen journalists have discussed establishing a bloggers organization where they can go beyond the limit in terms of reporting to the masses.
By facilitating the open sharing of ideas, information and perspectives, blogging in Malaysia has the potential to serve as a democratizing force in a country with little freedom of expression.
Democratic expectations of the local blogsphere must be tempered, however, with a realistic understanding of its limitations and the government’s authority, and sometimes coercive system of control.
With the government’s promise to not censor the Internet, wide ranges of politically contentious electronic media have emerged in Malaysia over the past several years in which includes the birth of Malaysiakini.
The Birth of Malaysiakini
In an interview with ZDNet Asia, Steven Gan, Malaysiakini’s co-founder and editor-in-chief whose strong belief is in free press mentioned, Malaysiakini was formed at the height of the Reformasi movement (reformation, in particular political reformation) in 1999, when the former Malaysian deputy prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim had been arrested and virtually demonized by the mainstream media.
On this issue, the media wasn’t reporting in the manner they should. There was a lot of self-censorship and the only way for people to get information was from the Internet, from pro-Reformasi Web sites (pro-Reformation).
“There were active demonstrations on the street and a lot of people were looking for information that they weren’t getting from the mainstream media.”
So…
Malaysiakini was immediately set up to post researched and investigated news. Gan hired trained journalists and operated it very much like other media outfits (without the censorship, of course).
From the beginning of its launch, Malaysiakini delivers over 37 million page views and 750 000 video downloads per month to over 1.6 million absolute unique visitors.
Culturally, this proves that over the years, Malaysians has developed trust in the citizen journalists with the nation’s news and have come to depend on them for their dose of truthful news from the view of the citizens.
In terms of journalistic restrictions in Malaysia..
Media are impelled to practice self-censorship through the inherent threat and enforcement of a wide range of restrictive laws. These laws include: Printing Presses and Publication Act (PPPA), Sedition Act, Defamation Act, Official Secrets Act (OSA), Communication and Multimedia Act (CMA), and the Internal Security Act (ISA)
Despite these restrictions, Malaysiakini still hold their ground with their belief in free press and reporting the truth to the nation.
Because of this,
In 2003, Malaysiakini’s office was raided by the authorities after a complaint was filed by an arm of the ruling United Malays National Organization (UMNO) against the site because of a letter it published which was deemed seditious. The Malaysian police seized all their CPU’s for investigation. This threatens Malaysiakini to be shut down entirely.
(Demonstrators hold a vigil outside of Malaysiakini’s office after police raided the place)
Photo taken from Malaysiakini.com
However, shutting down Malaysiakini was not a path Steven Gan and his team chose. With the support of their readers who loaned them CPU’s and small technical team who worked overtime to retrieve the back-up server despite having lost all their hardware, Malaysiakini went straight back in operation.
The future of citizen journalism in Malaysia
Journalism in new media has established itself throughout the years. With technology, media is made available in the most unthinkable ways. The Malaysian nation in beginning to seek news from other views besides government-controlled media sources for their dose of truthful and accurate news. For this, the nation has turned to the Internet as a new form of receiving news. This proves that the future for citizen journalists in Malaysia is as bright as ever and technology has made it possible for them to grow professionally.
References
Ho V, 15/04/2008, ‘Malaysiakini: Sparing no effort for the truth’, ZDNet Asia
://www.zdnetasia.com/malaysiakini-sparing-no-effort-for-the-truth-62040225.htm
Nadarajah N, ‘Malaysiakini: Malaysian Daily on the DotCom path to democracy’
http://www.cameco.org/mediaforum_pdf/mf3_4006.pdf
Gan S, 28/01/2003, ‘Press Freedom in Malaysia: The day they took our computers away’, Worldpress.org
http://www.worldpress.org/Asia/919.cfm#down
Committee to Protect Journalists, ‘Interview with Steven Gan’
http://cpj.org/awards/2000/gan-interview.php
Merican D, 25/03/2010, ‘Malaysiakini wins top media brand award’
http://dinmerican.wordpress.com/2010/03/25/malaysiakini-wins-top-media-brand-award/
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