Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Journalistic Courage & Integrity

DAP Parliamentary Leader, Lim Kit Siang was kicked out of the Dewan this morning after a ruckus erupted during his speech in the debate of a new Act to amend the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia Act 1999.

As rightly reported by Malaysiakini and The Malaysian Insider, Kit Siang was kicked out for "refusing to retract his accusation that Umno was ‘gila kuasa’ or ‘power crazy’ while debating amendments to the Human Rights Commission Bill."

However, go read the news flash in The Star, it says:
Ipoh Timur MP Lim Kit Siang was ejected by the Speaker from the House till 1pm Wednesday for refusing to apologise after calling Barisan Nasional politicians power crazy.
Notice the difference?

Malaysiakini and The Malaysian Insider reported accurately exactly what Kit Siang said, and it's really not too difficult to do so. Kit Siang accused UMNO of being power crazy. But The Star, owned by MCA, and enslaved by their big brother UMNO, especially during the UMNO General Assembly when ketuanan Melayu sentiments run high, reworded Kit Siang's statement to say "Barisan Nasional politicians" are power crazy.

A very subtle change, a very minor one even, some might argue. But it's change which only goes to demonstrate and prove the mainstream media's fear of a power crazy UMNO.

Unless of course, The Star actually believes that power craziness isn't limited to UMNO, but also include the other Barisan Nasional component parties like MCA, MIC, Gerakan et al. They might be reporting the truth after all.

(Update - The story in the Star has been updated, since I wrote this blog post to now correctly say "UMNO politicans")

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Star, along with newspapers that do not play a positive role in civil society's development but lags behind instead, only pandering a little to current sentiment enough to sell papers, will die a natural death when critical mass of people demand better reporting. They only still exist because of the printing and publications act that prevents more progressive papers that will actually serve the needs of people instead of existing as mere instruments of those in control and advertisors who have nowhere else to turn to.

Anonymous said...

Right thinking Malaysians have stopped buying msm newspapers already. This clearly shows why MCA cannot claim to represent the Chinese because they are beholden to their masters, umno. We are becoming a failed country if the rot continues and MCA, the so-called champions of the chinese will have to answer to the future generations of chinese for their actions.

l藍海 said...

唉、、、、
话说狗是人类最忠实的朋友,
政治狗的忠心更是不容置疑啦。
没法啦
俭伟哥哥
要做好官最先要学习习惯咯,
习惯狗吠,
习惯乱世时分心不乱。

Anonymous said...

Dear Tony,

Comments from Blue Sea always give me goose bumps.

Anonymous said...

Maybe Star editor should quickly go and learn Venn diagram :P

Unknown said...

no sweat. they don't even have the ball the report on the altantuya case being reported wordwise in details which has a serious impact to our nation and country.

btw, thank you for always update up with the real matters happen in parliment.

Shawn Tan said...

Hey, I love my MSM newspapers - especially TheStar. How else am I going to find out what's on sale?

Anonymous said...

Most readers are aware that The Star is MCA mouthpiece...

Don't take it too seriously. Read The Star with a pinch of salt, peper, etc....

hishamh said...

Hmmm...isn't there also a more than semantic difference between a retraction and an apology?

Anonymous said...

Problem with these kinds of method is that the urban voters only nod their head and DO THINK UMNO is just power crazy. When they go online, they understand the truth and really really think UMNO is power crazy.

So the only reason to do this is to hold on to the hard-core UMNO supporters - the crazies and zealots. Is it crazy but does it sound stupid to spend resources on to people on are already on your corner already?

Anonymous said...

please move on. continue to harp on these trivals at your own perils. seriously, look at najib's team, this will be tough for pakatan to match.

pakatan has already wasted one whole year trying its froggy adventure.

not much time left for u all.

value investing in malaysia said...

Dont worry Pua. today, Most of us read the news from mkini and mtoday.

now the economy is going into recession and the government needs to do something, not talk only. show us the accounts on where the stimulus money goes!!

pneoxian said...

People can say what they want to say, at the end of the day their action reveals all truths.

And no matter how carefully and masterfully they conceal and deceive, the truth will still be revealed. This is how we were created.

Also, if such allegations were indeed false and lies, why would there be need for oppression? Would not the world see, hear and determine for themselves if such allegations were false? Or do we need to be told what is right and wrong?

Anonymous said...

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