Don’t shoot the messenger

WE didn’t start the fire. We do, however, report on it. But some people seem to have forgotten this basic fact about the media, that we report on things that happen and things that people say, we don’t create those happenings and statements – and certainly not their consequences.

On Wednesday, National Unity Minister Datuk Aaron Ago Dagang warned the media to be tactful when reporting on sensitive issues and not to fan racial flames.

“I’ve been telling the media, sensitive issues, please cool it down. You are making the situation worse in this country, please don’t do it,” he was reported as saying by an online news portal.

The Kanowit MP was responding to a question about the Jom Ziarah controversy that blew up when a Youth and Sports Ministry-affiliated agency planned to take young people on a visit to various places of worship as part of a programme to give young Malaysians a better understanding of the different faiths practised in the country; Muslim youth were reportedly not part of the programme.

The media has been reporting on this rather dramatic issue that was raised in Parliament and that has now involved the police and statements being taken from a minister and a political activist blogger.

We didn’t bring up the Jom Ziarah programme until it was raised in Parliament; we didn’t cook up parliamentary statements, and we certainly have nothing to do with the inflammatory opinions shared and going viral on social media.

We are, however, reporting on all of it. Should we not?

The media’s role is to act as a bridge between the people and the powers-that-be. The government reaches out to citizens through the media and citizens make their displeasure (or pleasure) known about what the government is doing through the media.

Well, that’s how it’s supposed to work in a functioning democracy. Otherwise we could have a totalitarian government dictating all terms without consultation or lawless anarchy when people take to the streets because they can’t get through to their leaders.

Don’t report on an issue because you’re making it worse, said the minister. That means we should ignore the fact that a political activist accused an elected Member of Parliament and a Cabinet minister of proselytising Christianity to Muslim youths.

Shouldn’t the people who voted for that MP and those who voted for that activist’s political party know about this issue?

Don’t fan the racial flames, we’ve been told. But who exactly has been fanning those flames since before we gained our independence?

Probably every adult Malaysian (and even youngsters) knows who does that, especially come election time.

How many times have we heard politicians say something along the lines of “those people are out to destroy your livelihood, vote for our kind of people only, we’ll keep you safe” – and sound bites like that have come from both sides of the political divide.

So, again, don’t report on it, you say? That means voters won’t know that this is what a potential MP believes.

Apart from not reporting it being futile in this age of social media, it is literally the media’s job to report on what important people say and do.

If you have been reading Malaysia’s mainstream media, you might have noticed we don’t reproduce the incendiary statements so many politicians throw around casually. That’s because we abide by laws on libel and sedition; politicians seem to be happily immune to these laws but we aren’t, so we exercise editorial judgment. But we do have to report on the consequences of such statements and actions.

We are not fanning racial or religious flames. We have long been fighting to contain those flames lit by politicians by trying to make the vital function of governance transparent.

So, no, we most definitely didn’t start the fire.