Let journalists do their job

WHEN the movement control order (MCO) was first implemented on March 18, the media was one of the few sectors considered essential services and allowed to operate.

Journalists were issued with letters to allow them unrestricted movement despite the numerous roadblocks set up.

This was done because the government realised that the media in general was an important tool in disseminating useful information about the Covid-19 pandemic.

As restrictions have eased to the extent that almost all businesses are back in operation, the government appears to have become jittery over adverse reports about its handling of the pandemic.

The economy is slowly recovering, although the constant fear that we could be hit by a second wave is making the authorities less tolerant to criticism.

A police team and officers from the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) raided the local office of Al Jazeera this week and took away several devices to facilitate ongoing investigations into the Qatari news agency’s controversial documentary titled ”Locked Up in Malaysia’s Lockdown”.

At the same time, the authorities also “visited” Astro and UnifiTV, interviewed senior management and took away some documents.

Both these companies featured the Al Jazeera documentary on their platforms.

These latest raids appear to be part of a worrying trend that has seen journalists from other publications (both local and foreign as well as online and print) questioned over articles that the authorities have deemed to have contravened either/or one of the following laws.

These include violations of the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984, the Sedition Act 1948, the Official Secrets Act 1972, the National Film Development Corporation (Finas) Act 1981 and the Communications and Multimedia Act (CMA) 1998.

Media organisations such as the Foreign Correspondents Club of Malaysia (FCCM) and the Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ) have in recent days criticised the government for its handling of the Al Jazeera issue.

“Such excessive actions reflect further erosion of media freedom seen in the country in recent months and suggests a worrying trend of employing intimidation tactics to silence news reports unfavourable to the government, ” FCCM said in a statement.

Once again, Malaysia is on the global map and for all the wrong reasons.

The government needs to accept criticism. Respond to criticism, but do not stifle it.

And the police would be better off combating crime and apprehending Covid-19 dodgers than going after journalists, local or foreign, who are just doing their jobs.

Was it that necessary to raid an international news organisation, all for the sake of proving a point?

The Home Minister should instead have engaged with the media organisation concerned. If there had been a misrepresentation of the facts, the ministry could have shared the government’s side of the story.

The Communications and Multimedia Minister on the other hand should be the standard bearer for freedom of the press. But this freedom does come with responsibilities which should not be abused.

In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic and the MCO, we have been inundated with a deluge of fake news via social media and unverified websites.

The amount of misinformation in cyberspace is mind-blowing. And it is precisely this reason that the government should not stifle the free press.

In this day and age, it would be a mockery for governments especially ours during this time to assume that the media’s role is a secondary one in nation-building.

The media as the Fourth Estate is one of the most fundamental institutions in promoting a transparent and legitimate structure of governance and order in any society.

The move to form a Malaysian Media Council to self-regulate the industry is long overdue. Successive administrations have pledged to ensure that this comes to fruition but these pledges have not been fulfilled.

And as long as we have archaic laws in place to curb and restrict media freedom we cannot truly call ourselves a mature democracy.

Admittedly though, we have made great strides when it comes to freedom of the press. The 2019 Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index has us up 22 spots to 123 in the world, the top-ranked South-East Asian nation.

But, as the CIJ indicates, there is a real possibility that Malaysia’s position on the Index will go down the ladder with actions that are serious threat to our right to information and freedom of speech and expression.