Media freedom?According to Screenshots here (pic below courtesy of his lens), there were journalists and pixmen covering the people's protest against the toll hike in Sunway yesterday.
Unfortunately, a call to the editors at Utusan Malaysia and the Star ensured that their reports and pictures didn't make it to print. Half a call to Hishamuddin Aun from the 4th floor operator was all it took to censor the entire news about the people's protest.
The Sun, however, had a picture and story headlined Anti-toll protest attracts Big crowd for its on-line.
Which shows that all you need to promote greater media freedom is the balls to say no to the 4th floor operators.
BRU, THE STAR DOES HAVE THE STORY!! - Lanang
ReplyDeleteOpposition and NGOs protest against toll hike
PETALING JAYA: Members of opposition parties and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) gathered in front of a shopping mall here to protest the recent toll hike by five highway concessionaires.
Led by a coalition of parties called Protest Against Toll Hike, more than 1,000 people gathered in front of Sunway Pyramid for more than two hours.
They chanted hidup rakyat (long live the people) and hapuskan tol (abolish toll) while holding banners and placards.
Among the speakers were MTUC presi-dent Syed Sharir Syed Mahmud, Parti Keadilan Rakyat information chief Tian Chua and DAP Sungai Pinang assemblyman Teng Chang Khim.
Subang Jaya OCPD Asst Comm Muhammad Fuad Talib said the protest was peaceful, adding that no one was arrested in the gathering that began at 4.30pm.
“We closed several roads leading to Sunway Pyramid to control traffic flow. The crowd dispersed peacefully at 6.10pm,” ACP Muhammad Fuad said.
He said the police would probe the incident as the protesters did not have a permit to organise a gathering.
Six hundred policemen including 90 Federal Reserve Unit (FRU) personnel were deployed to Sunway Pyramid and Sunway Toll Plaza.
Last nite,tv3 late news,chua soi lek states that PM will announced soon,on special govt loan incentive 2 businesses effectd by d flood.Utusan covered it 2day.What piff me bro,y wait?Bcoz they hope this will better his battered image 4 missin at d height of floodin?A PR stint?2 hell wit it.People need help!Dont need 4 PM 2 b home.Likewise, east coast now is on red alert!How abt CIMB?Its good PR 2 announce RM1mil 4 d flood fund.Acheh got it.Pls say sumthin!
ReplyDeleteRocky Bro, why we still depending on the 4th floor when we got blogs ? Come to Siber Party Malaysia (M) and we'll champion your cause in this alam siber. Do talk to our YB Minah Black, she's ever ready to listen and to whip up a furore over any injustice or smothering of information.
ReplyDeleteAftrall,he doesnt need cabinet's approval when he announced dat RM600mil incentif 4 umno's divisions during PAU recently.
ReplyDeleteHey! Any of you noticed? Sun said 300 protestes, Star said 600 cops. 1 protestes = 2 cops!
ReplyDeleteWaaaaaa !!!!
Police state of wat!?
Saudara Rocky,
ReplyDeleteEven before your post and Jeff Ooi's on the media blackout, it was already clear that a directive were already given out to all the press on the toll issue.
If you were to recall, prior to the increment on 1 Jan, there was only one official announcement and that was done by Samy himself. The explanation was rather dubious at best, and without the basis of a proper disclosure of the concession agreement (which in the end, left us all in the dark on how the mechanism really worked).
And then closer to 1 Jan, no further announcement were given out. Only on the afternoon of New Year's day did I realise the LDP and Kesas toll had already gone up by 60 and 70 cents respectively, making it very costly indeed to go from Puchong to KL via LDP and Kesas highways.
There were no mention of the impending increase in the media nor by the toll operators themselves, and I can tell you, a lot of people were taken by surprise on 1 Jan (and they were angry too). I am sure you are one of them, since you live near the LDP!
Only The Star Metro on 1 Jan did a story on this, but only to report on the `existence' of alternative routes (which were virtually non-existent).
I will not question how the media operates in this country (you and I know better). The so-called Fourth Floor has been in existence for a long, long time, in one form or another. But at least in the past, whenever toll were raised, there were some debate in the media on the merits, and some effort by the government to appease the public.
But this time, there is no such thing. It's as if, you take it or leave it. And don't say anything. Generally you don't see any good or bad reports. There's just nothing on the toll in the media. It's like the toll increase never happened. If you ask me, this is similar to the Singapore way. And I wonder...
In PR terms, this is massively underestimating the rakyat. Because thanks to you and the others, the people do not have to rely on the normal media for news anymore. I wonder if the so-called 'freer' local media is ever going to bounce back from the rot they are currently in.
How true and very sad, to think that when people are in dire need for any kind of help, and here we hear and read about "pembesar-pembesar" still trying to ride on what ever publicity they think that can get them that extra mileage.
ReplyDeleteJust get on with it.It won't change the fact that people know he was away enjoying his holiday while the flood victims were suffering.
If there was such a plan to assist all those businesses affected, make it known right away. That would give them hope.
Its scary when you think how some people, when facing doom and gloom, might take an easy way out, thinking it's all over now and not realising help is on its way.
Saudara-saudari yang di hormati sekalian.
ReplyDeleteThe last time media independence was discussed on 'live' on national television, a talk show host got the boot and blacklisted...ask our Pak Non, he'll testify about some of the draconian laws, that some of those in the media fraternity want re-addressed and repealed.Ironically they were discussing about the 'Role of Media in Nation Building'.At the end of the day the people must decide for themselves.Cost of living does go up, but by sacrificing us as lambs to the slaughter, is indeed a deed done by vultures and bloodthirsty scoundrels, who have no room for the common man.Preach and practice accordingly.Like a defence counsel once said," don't dance with danger"....May the People Prevail Against Oppression....
Will the 4th floor again censor the news about the Abd Razak Baginda trial in 2008? Or will the trial be carried forward to 2058 when everyone involved has gone to meet their maker?
ReplyDeletehey rocky bro,
ReplyDeletejust a few questions out of curiosity, from your experience editing in mainstream press, from an objective point of view (as in minus all the angst towards current media masters), would you say there is greater media freedom now or then?
i take the view that there is more now esp with The Star giving more space to report on issues in an oblique way usually via metro :D
during your time as a mainstream press editor, how did u overcome these challenges to media freedom within the system?
i am just interested to know cos it must be hard.
Press freedom in Malaysia...jangan harap-lah.
ReplyDeletePerhaps the masses are not ready to digest the reality or perhaps the government is afraid of the truth.
Anyhow you see it, it wont happen, at least in my life time.
On another note...every night ever since the launch on Jan 6, Titiwangsa Lake Gardens have been coloured with beautiful fireworks display...if it goes on I guess it'll be a lil' too much...basically burning the tax payers money eh.
Actually there is greater censorship now than ever before.
ReplyDeletecemerlang, gemilang, terbilang sebenar nya ada lah TEMBERANG...so said an ex media senior editor..
ReplyDeleteHishamuddin Aun is the first Ceremonial Group Editor in-Chief of NSTP. He cannot write good article. He can only take order from 4th Floor to justify his big salary.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if The Corrupt List should have a space of newspaper editors.
ReplyDeleteHishamuddin aun is there for the money. he cant write, he can sub, he cant decide. he is good for nothing. but sadly the nst is paying him something like 60 grand a month to do nothing and not to upset the apple cart. no wonder new shit times is going to the dogs. rocky, you are one of a few who has the qualities to head the nst. you have the language, you are cosmopolitan, you are non-racist.
ReplyDeleteRocky,
ReplyDeleteStar is no better than nst. Kalimullah lied in his June 11 article nad Brendan plagiarised. The Star has now started to lie, trying to help Tony Fernandez of AirAsia. Remmember begining of 2007 the Star front page the story that Virgin and Easyjet were joining up with AirAisa for long haul flight. Easyjet and Virgin immediately denied the said report.
The Star did nto bother to apologise or correct the story or published Virgin Arilines and Easyjet denials.
This is the Star for you!! So be careful when reading the Star as ti is no better than NST - IT CAN ALSO LIE TOO!!!!
btw, the temberang quote came frm a good fren of yrs, he also said islam hadhari is actually islam hakhairy.....
ReplyDeletebru
ReplyDeletehey i have cut down on star paper to the weekends only. and that only for sports and some gossip news. other news forget about it as it is nothing but a mouthpiece for the you know wholah. me cynical. you bet on it.
you can only get more balance news from alternative media. my appreciation to jeff, rocky, patrick, rpk, marina and a host of others. many thanks and keep it up but i dont know how long you guys will be able to continue blogging without any fear or favour as the government has already indicated that you bloggers are the source of incorrect or false info.
good luck and may god bless you all.
Bru,
ReplyDeleteas echoed by freelunch...is there greater press freedom now than pre sleepy days?
I cant take it when some people comment that the present admin is more transparent. I dont give a shit! because to me the current admin has caused greater hardship to me! and my family! condoning racial slurs...no action was taken against those racist buggers, when it was promised that stern action even ISA will be taken against them!
To me bring back the previous admin anytime. . . !
I really can't wait till the next election...lets see if things will change!
hey rocky,
ReplyDeletedid u get my comment about Star having non-chinese reporters/editors with frontpage and pageleads?
it kinda din appear in the comments section.
heh heh heh,
ReplyDeleteNot only journalists and editors of the day can't write, now they can't even count! 300-600 or even 1,000 in the count observed by them. Hmmmm..I was there. There were at least 2,500 people around and this is excluding the Six to eight trucks of FRU members!
Do I see malaysians now having the balls to stand up and be counted? Lets see them really do that at Batu Talam!
BTW did you see the comment made by PM regarding the up coming Batu Talam by election? He said if the public can think properly, they will elect BN. They know that the decisions made by the government is the right one even if it DISCOMFORT them!! The government is created NOT to be popular HE SAID! Serious stuff man.
cucuparit
grex...hahahhahaha the corrupt list..hahahahhahahaahah
ReplyDeletetrue rafidah + samee velooo (mr "ini semua untuk rakyat jelata") tops the list...hahahhahahaahha
One of my sibling is an editor at one of the main papers and yes, it is true ONLY during Pak Lah-Khairy ascensionship they are being monitored and tell what they can and cannot print.
ReplyDeleteNever was this done during Tun Dr. Mahathir's time. It is an abomination. Khairy et al even tell them what pic can be printed or not.
If anyone care to take a look at entertainment and leisure magazines (Wanita, Mangga, etc), even these are being fed with Pak Lah and Khairy's "kami sokong" and Pak Lah-only-wants-to-be-popular news. Makes one want to throw up!
These two are the worst power-hungry and seeking popularity via DIRECT MANIPULATION OF THE MEDIA AND NEWS TOOLS.
They only seek popularity and Pak Lah's comment today on the news that HIS Govt does not seek popularity was such a JOKE coz from day one that is what HE & KHAIRY have been doing!!! via media and advertisement and his & Khairy's face all over the media and prints INCLUDING POSTERS in public places. When their bloody stupid & have personal-gain clearly decisions enraged the rakyat, they quickly point fingers at others or distanced themselves.
Remember the issue when Khairy made racist statement about the Chinese, then a month after that he reprimand ppl not to abuse freedom of speech and use race issue. Isn't this guy something or what? He is the one inciting racial discomforts even among BN members and Pak Lah was defending him back, front, left, right, top and bottom! Including making comments about his SIL periuk nasi being broken TO INTERNATIONAL MEDIA. What a huge periuk nasi that is.. and this Badawi clan has no shame at all to tell the international media his family is rich which INCIDENTLY inflatedly rich only during the last 3 years he was made PM.
Pak Lah & Khairy with his Tgkt 4 advisors have made Malaysia a joke and the real cabinet (Kitchen Kabinet or Kabinet Anak-Beranak) consists only of him, Khairy, Kamaludin, Nori & those with vested interest such as Kali, Patrick Badawi, Vincent Lim.
Bloody BALAUSs these two. Pak Lah and Khairy Jamaluddin are HUGE LIABILITIES to UMNO and BN.
In the meantime, Pak Lah is still living in neverneverland, goofing off overseas playing golf, boating, fishing and sleeping at the nation's and taxpayers expense.
Pak Lah takes no responsibility for all his SIL and Tgkt 4 bad and expionage decisions against Malaysia and our national companies.
UMNO and BN must purge him totally out (and thus SIL-Tgkt 4 advisors bad influence)to save their boats for next PRU.
Pak Lah is only eligible to be a Tok Siak at some surau. Definitley no eligibe even to be an Imam coz his hand was shown to teraba bahu Michelle Yeoh recently.
Khairy Jamaluddin with his Oxford degree shud hv no problem applying for a despatch boy position at Lee Kuan Yew or Lee Hsien Loong's office across the causeway. At least Singapore is not that far compared to say.. Hong Kong. Vincent Lim can be his boss there.
To monsterball,,
ReplyDeleteU maybe a blind supporter, delusional even, of AAB, but smart???!!!...Dontlah give yourself tooooo much credit.
Wat a joke! hahahhahhahhahahahahahha
REQUEST to Monsterball,
If u want to continue talking thru ur backside can u at least where a diaper?? Pretty please??That way u can keep ur verbal excrements to yourself
The battle for the hearts and minds of Malaysian citizens is essentially between Malaysian blogs and the mainstream media, both print and electronic.
ReplyDeleteWithin the Malaysian blogs, it is the 'gentlemen' bloggers (ladies included, of course) who are at the frontline in dispensing unmanipulated news and revealing the 'real' truth to the public.
How these bloggers move forward will affect the voting trend in the next GE.
And you can bet your last ringgit (i.e. if you have any after paying for higher toll rates, etc), AAB will later try to mitigate this threat. Right now, he thinks bloggers are a bunch of misfits and disorganised, hence, on this premise, he's allowing us the 'freedom' to blog without restraint.
He's also doing it with the misconceived notion that he's allowing more transparency under his administration, apparently, to boost his image to the public. In other words, AAB feel he can 'control' the blogosphere at any time.
Even DAP are strategising to include blogs as part of their game-plan by including J.O.
Let's stay focus, folks. We are in for the long-haul and the ride will get rough.
....................................
On the toll issue, the key factor is traffic volume and projections. Concentrate on this component of the agreement and you will break the monopoly.
yo...monsterball...are you sure you are on the right frequency this time?
ReplyDeletemonsterball said..."I AM ONE OF HIS SMART SUPPORTER...hahahahaha."
don't know why he is so happy with himself...because from what he wrote he is the ONLY one supporting the I'm-in-control-PM.
if there were more than ONE then there should have been a PLURAL for supporter.
but, then again, a supporter could very well mean other things...i.e.an underwear could also be a supporter!
it supports your scrotum!
however, in all honesty, I thank monsterball for all his contributions because they are all so hilarious...with a smart supporter like you who needs enemies!
It is ironic that this government would rather ostracize the relatively smarter and reasonable bloggers, but embrace the unreasonably stupid and beast-like mat rempits. SIL even suggested them to be the Police Force's mata2.
ReplyDeleteI've never felt so insecure in my own country.
my goodness!
monsterball
ReplyDeleteyou are not only the supporter of the Sleeping Beauty/Mr I DO NOT KNOW. You are also a great supporter of the Sleeping Beauty's machais like Lim Kit Siang and Lim Guan Eng, who do not seem to know about any scadnal concerning the Sleeping Beauty, Kalimulah, Khairy and Kamaludin (all the 3Ks).
Please tell us when Kalimullah is going to publish more interviews of Lim Kit Siang and Lim Guan Eng in the NST, an UMNO owned newspapers. NST under Kalimullah is very liberal that's why Kalimullah put an Singapore Indian, Brendan, as the de facto head of NST! Of course, Brendan has "resigned" after he was caught plagiarising other people works.
mosnterball, why the mainstream newspapers like Star, NST and others chose to ignore such protest against the toll increases?
Oh ya! Toll increase because we had to pay for the RM30 million luxury yatch!! So ok lah!
To monsterball
ReplyDeleteYou're smart , you are ! You left out the apostrophe and and 2 's's in your nick, no, not nick, but name.
It should read, allow me, ' monster's balls'
What are we complaining about? There was none of this when Mahathir was the Pm from all the guys slagging like like Kadir Jasin, Ahmad Talib or Rocky. Have these guys suddenly founf their voices when they were in power they were all stooges paying homage to their LORD?
ReplyDeletePeter,
ReplyDeleteWhen we praise someone for doing a good job its not called ball- carrying". Its called describing something truthfully. That's what Kadir, Rocky , Ahmad Talib were doing. With Mahathir u dont have to lie to praise him.Of course, some may say that civil rights, media freedom and all the other boring stuff suffered under him, but Mahathir didnt go out of his way championing those issues either.So u jugde him based on what he promises .Anyway, i prefer econmic freedom to those freedoms anytime..
On the other hand, to praise our current champ Dol 'Neopotism' Ahmad require two things:
1) A huge imagination and an even a bigger ambition
2) The ability to lie
Positively u can say the first reqires brains while negatively the second reqires morally bangkrupt individuals.
But actually, it doesnt reqire alot of thought to come out with a media strategy to bamboozle the public by doing what they are doing.
Its easy.To appear hebat they have 2 options;
1) A leader can appear 'hebat' by doing his job well. In this case dia memang betul-betul hebat. Is this option hard to achieve? Senang if you have what it takes- just be yourself, n since that means being great than greatness will follow naturally. Unfotunately unemployment goes up a notch- thers no need for spin doctors, just real ones.But if u are mediocre than no amount of media massaging can help u.
2) OR a leader can appear hebat by suggesting, sometimes blatantly but most of the time, by insinuation and juxtoposition,that every body else is bad.To the unwary among us he will immediately appear "good" dan kalau well done even "alim".Or at least better than everyone else.
Initially the polis took a battering. Than it was Eric Cheah, Kassitah Gaddam, KSU Dr Abd Aziz.
N then daim, thru Gopal Sri Ram's verdict which wasnt relevant to the Halim case but was plasterd all over the front pages.
Later on it was the civil servants and Umno members. And today, its even more insidious.
They are actually admiting that things are bad under Pak Lah. But not BCOZ of Pak Lah but rather IN SPITE of Pak Lah.
Never before has as a head of goverment suggested that he is great but the problem is, his goverment is not.
Never before has a Pm tried to disassociete himself from the very body that he heads just to save his own skin.
Kesia dia, he tries so hard but old Dr gave him such a bad legacy that its impossible to make it work.Makes sense..yes..but hold on isnt he part of DRM legacy? for two decades?
I guess the phrase " the buck stops here" doesnt exist in the PR frenzy.
So in short that's the differance between now and then.
We praise DrM, based on what he advocates and achieves.
N we castigate Dol" Nepoloean Neopotism" Ahmad for what he advocates and acheiving the opposite.