Page 1 of 2 Wanted: A voice of one's own
By Ioannis Gatsiounis
KUALA LUMPUR - In a borderless world that increasingly recognizes the
connection between media freedom and well-rounded development, the Malaysian
government is finding it harder to sell its version of news to the world. But
rather than bow to the laws of nature, the government has stepped up its
campaign against information that strays from its official script.
Hints of this came last week, after a court decision that has further tarnished
the image of Malaysia's brand of Islam. The
nation's highest civil court refused to recognize a woman's conversion from
Islam to Christianity, in essence saying it has no jurisdiction over sharia
(Muslim) courts when it comes to cases involving conversion to and from Islam.
The state news agency Bernama later reported that Information Minister
Zainuddin Maidin found a 279-word story on the case by the British Broadcasting
Corp (BBC) sensational and inaccurate, though he did not elaborate. (I
struggled in vain to find evidence for the claim.)
The same report said Zainuddin "reminded local media practitioners not to
follow the style of the foreign media who are prejudiced against the country"
("foreign" here is the preferred phrasing of government officials, in lieu of
"free", which just might give local journalists ideas).
The same day, Zainuddin announced that Bernama will launch a 24-hour radio
station in August "to meet the demand of the people who hunger for the latest
news and information", Bernama reported.
A year ago the government set up the Nam News Network (NNN) with the stated
goal of offering accurate information on the 118 developing countries of the
Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). It gets about 200 site visits a day, said an
official.
Also last year, Malaysian officials proposed setting up an Islamic journalism
center to combat Islamophobia and perceived misrepresentations of Muslims and
Islam, with the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) nominating
Malaysia to chair the center because of its "experience and success in handling
problems with the foreign media", according to Bernama.
The center will provide training and fellowships for Muslim journalists and
could help "give the true perspective on the peace-loving Islamic world to
non-Muslim journalists [who] will participate in its program", according to
Qatari News Agency executive director Abdullah A Rahman Al-Muzaffar.
"We should make full use of our media organizations to expound our views and
opinions about our culture, our society and above all our religion, so that
others may know what Islam is really all about," Zainuddin was quoted as
saying. He said Malaysia is willing to fund the center partially but did not
indicate a launch date. The government, he said, is fed up with what it calls
"deception" and "belittling" by the Western media toward Islam and the
developing world.
But some find it odd that the Malaysian government should spearhead any effort
to offer more reliable coverage of the Islamic and developing worlds, given
that the government tightly restricts Malaysians' access to dependable
information on both domestic and international issues; all major media are
controlled by the state.
"The government is aiming to be at the forefront of [the] global communications
industry while restricting information on grounds of 'security and stability'
and promoting Asian values as they [government officials] conveniently define
them," said Sonia Randhawa, executive director of Malaysia's Center for
Independent Journalism.
To be sure, the government and its media machine have a penchant for
trivializing race and religion and squelching voices that don't toe the
official line. In April, for instance, Zainuddin filed a protest with the BBC
for giving airtime to "rejected" opposition leaders. Local bloggers ridiculed
Zainuddin, a former journalist for the state-run media, for being out of touch
with the fundamentals of democracy. Then, last month, Zainuddin said Malaysia
must classify bloggers as "professionals and non-professionals" to prevent
misuse of weblog sites.
"It is feared that these [blogs] will be misused by those who have an agenda to
spread slander," Zainuddin was quoted as saying.
Zainuddin's choice of words such as "fear" and "agenda" is revealing. The
political elite in this stable though racially divided nation of 25 million are
known to suffer from an us-versus-them siege mentality. Western powers are
routinely made scapegoats as neo-colonizers, opposition leaders as "losers" and
"troublemakers" (by Zainuddin and the iron-fisted former premier Mahathir
Mohamad respectively). International journalists are intent on creating
"political instability in Malaysia" (Zainuddin again). Several politicians,
including the youth chief of the ruling United Malays National Organization
(UMNO), the Education Minister Hishammudin Hussein, have urged the government
to reject an inter-faith commission. As head of UMNO and prime minister,
Abdullah Badawi has granted their wish on grounds that some issues are just too
sensitive to discuss.
Of course these obscurantist tendencies raise the question of whether the
government can be trusted to train journalists properly, let alone allow them
the freedom to report on issues they deem to be in the public interest.
In speaking with staff of the NNN, I sensed they were sincerely invested in
offering NAM countries "a voice of their own" - without the fear, indignation
and blatant deceit that characterize much of the state press's coverage of
contentious local and international issues.
"We have to keep away the trash," a director of NNN told me. "We're not
supposed to antagonize people." Top headlines on a recent day seemed to abide
by the notion: "India becomes trillion-dollar economy"; "Bush, Talabani agree
Iraq government must meet reform benchmarks"; "South Africa urges UN [Security
Council] for unbiased actions on Lebanon"; "US business for open trade with
Cuba".
But as well-meaning as NNN's staff might be, its hands are tied. With an
in-house staff of 10 and RM1.2 million (US$352,000) in startup funding from the
Malaysian government, the NNN is required to take news from state news
agencies, said the director, and even then filtration occurs. So some major
stories go missing.
Take last week, with regard to the conversion case. Weighing the power of the
sharia against that of the more universally minded constitution, the decision
was widely considered to be among the
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