Partisans’ row triggers
media ban in Malaysia

MALAYSIA’S Center for Independent Journalism (CIJ) has expressed concern over a decision by the Kelantan state government to bar the newspaper Utusan Malaysia from state assembly proceedings and all official functions involving Nik Abdul Aziz, the Menteri Besar or chief executive of Kelantan state.

In a statement, the CIJ, an associate member of the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA), said any move to bar any media from state events was “a suppression of the freedom of the press and an unhealthy precedent.”

The CIJ observed that the newspaper has not been fair in its coverage of the federal opposition coalition, the Pakatan Rakyat (PR). Utusan Malaysia is owned mostly by the Barisan Nasional, the federal ruling party.

“CIJ recognizes that the mainstream media owned and controlled by the federal ruling party Barisan Nasional (BN) are often not fair in their coverage of the federal opposition coalition,” CIJ said. In particular, CIJ said Utusan Malaysia “has also been unethical and irresponsible in the past in its reporting on racial or religious issues.”

Nonetheless, the CIJ pointed out that the opposition coalition should engage the media instead of barring them from state events. “Announcing in a press conference how a particular media has distorted an issue or wrongly reported an event, rather than barring the said media from official events, goes toward raising awareness on (un)ethical media practices,” CIJ said in its statement.

“This is not the first instance of a PR state government barring the media from their events. Both Penang and Kedah have also barred select media from state events in the past,” CIJ said.

SEAPA is an alliance of independent media organizations advocating freedom of expression and freedom of information. It was founded in 1998 by five media groups from three countries in the region — the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ), the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR), the Thai Journalists Association (TJA), and the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) and the Institute for the Study of Free Flow of Information (ISAI), both from Indonesia. — PCIJ, June 2011