Press Freedom in Malaysia - Where For Art Thou?

Source: dinmerican.wordpress.com 

Based on the most recent findings by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), it is evident that the state of press freedom in Malaysia has declined sharply compared to where it was standing last year.

Malaysia’s position took a nosedive from 122 in 2012, to 145. It fell a total of 23 spots in the World Press Freedom Index. Malaysia was in the 122^nd spot for the past two consecutive years, along with Tajikistan and Algeria.

RSF reported that this happened due to the consistent lack of access to information in the country despite the fact that non-governmental organisations and online news media has been urging for more access to information. The report also stated that the government of Malaysia has been leaning towards “authoritarianistic and repressive measures to curtail the access.” (Pragalath, 2013) 

This is clearly seen from the Bersih 3.0 protest that took place in April 2012. The protest was done by the opposition party, and even though they have been pushing for it to be a peaceful demonstration striving for a clean voting system in the coming election, they were fired upon by tear gas. Citizens even suffered at the hands of the police. The media however, has failed to highlight the acts of police brutality, and instead focused more on the rampant actions done by protestors. (Lai, 2012)

RSF also reported that the Malaysian government is constantly involved in “repeated censorship efforts that undermine basic freedom, in particular the right to information.”

This should not be how press freedom is like for the country. The media should not twist facts to suit their reporting angle just because they are owned by government bodies.

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References:

Lai, T.M., 2012. What Bersih 3.0 revealed. Malaysiakini.com [online] 7 May 2012. Available at: <http://www.malaysiakini.com/letters/197172> [Accessed on 29 November 2013]

Pragalath, K., 2013. Our press freedom in free fall, down 23 spots. Freemalaysiatoday.com [online] 1 Oct 2013. Available at: <http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2013/10/01/m%E2%80%99sia%E2%80%99s-press-freedom-at-worst-a-drop-in-23-spots/> [Accessed on 29 November 2013]