Concerned Malaysians once again observe World Press Freedom Day on 3 May not with jubilation and pride, but with an acute sense of trepidation and apprehension. The past year has been marked by various official actions that have cast gloom over the scope of press freedom.
Almost as if to herald this auspicious occasion, the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court convicted Harakah editor Zulkifli Sulong of sedition. Harakah is the party newspaper of the opposition Islamic party and had played a major role in highligting and reporting dissent in the reformasi era. After the 1999 general election, its circulation was slashed from twice a week to twice a month.
What made the court decision even more controversial is that a similar charge made against a former opposition leader was dropped two years ago, thus lending credence to accusations of selective prosecution.
Given the events following the ouster of Anwar Ibrahim from government and the eroding credibility of the judiciary in the recent past, many Malaysians wonder whether 'sedition' has become a convenient tool to clamp down on dissent.
Earlier this year, police raided independent news portal malaysiakini.com after receiving a complaint from UMNO Youth regarding a letter written by a certain 'Petrof' deemed to be 'seditious'. Several servers were seized and malaysiakini.com was made a glaring example of what an 'errant' critical media organisation deserves - the sledgehammer treatment.
The Printing Presses and Publications Act (PPPA) still remains in the statute book despite calls from civil society groups and petitions by aggrieved journalists for the law to be repealed. This oppressive law has been instrumental in shaping the pattern of media ownership in the country today: there is increasing concentration of media ownership in the hands of a few who are closely aligned or friendly to the ruling elite.
The PPPA has been used to deny the legitimate right of smaller, alternative publishers such as Ahmad Lutfi to produce publications that cater to groups that have been neglected by the mainstream media. Media diversity, in other words, has been stifled.
This press law, combined with the State's insistence that Malaysia's mass media should be 'guided', has led to some journalists and top editors being - to borrow a new term for an old practice - 'embedded' with the State in their daily duties. The result is a kind of journalism that often sadly skirts important issues such as social justice and the real truth behind current events.
Events around the world, in particular the Anglo-American invasion and occupation of Iraq, do not augur well for press freedom worldwide. The biased reporting of the invasion by many Western media organisations has provided ammunition for some government leaders in the developing world, Malaysia included, to justify their strict control over their own mass media.
Already, Deputy Information Minister Zainuddin Maidin has asserted that press freedom is no longer relevant after these western media organisations abandoned journalistic ethics during the invasion of Iraq. But surely, two wrongs don't make a right. Proponents of press freedom do not only come from the west but from the east as well. Just because certain quarters in the west have been hypocritical does not mean that the important concepts of press freedom and freedom of expressions - basic human rights enshrined under international law - should be abandoned.
Furthermore, Zam's argument that press freedom in the country should be shaped by its own values and needs is not only fallacious but also dangerous. It begs the question: whose (Malaysian) values would really shape the proposed journalistic Code of Conduct and the Media Council, and press freedom? Would these values be authoritarian in nature to protect vested interests or would they serve the interests of the public and protect the basic rights of citizens?
Charter 2000-Aliran calls upon the government to repeal all laws that impede press freedom and impinge upon the citizens' right to access to information. The only way forward is for the press to be reinstated to its rightful place in society as the guardians and watchdogs of the public interest.
Dr Mustafa K Anuar and Anil Netto
Coordinators
Charter 2000 - Aliran
(a Malaysian citizens media initiative)
3 May 2003
