Press Statement

by Lim Guan Eng

(Petaling Jaya, Thursday): In commemoration with World Press Freedom Day, Malaysians should remind ourselves that freedom of expression is a fundamental human right, as outlined in article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which says that

"everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; that this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."

Such fundamental rights has been observed more by its breach than its compliance with laws such as the Sedition Act as well as the Printing Presses & Publications Act used selectively to persecute those who oppose the government. Apart from these laws that stifle press freedom, the media monopoly by interests close to the ruling coalition has engendered a suffocating environment of self-censorship so pervasive that “Self-censorship in Malaysia has been refined to an art by news editor that the censors could not do a better job”. 

The deterioration of press freedom can be seen by the 2007 Annual Report by the Paris-based press freedom group, Reporters Without Borders:

“Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has still not fulfilled the promise of openness which he made when he came to power in 2003. Censorship and self-censorship have not gone away and media concentration in the hands of the families of government members has been further boosted this year.”

The impact can be seen by the compliant nature of news reporting in the English and Malay news and print media where there is no investigative journalism and only positive news are reported. Any corruption stories or public opposition to the government are managed and controlled to demonstrate that there are democratic freedoms without embarrassing the political masters.  

The refusal by English and Malay mass media to accredit opposition leaders who handle public issues, blackout on news on the toll and fuel hikes as well as action taken against those who breached these rules are just a few examples. Even the vernacular newspapers, though exercising some degree of editorial freedom, are facing increasing restrictions that slowly makes them carbon copies of the English and Malay media. 

Malaysia’s ranking in the World Press Freedom Index improved from No. 113 in 2005 to 92 in 2006 based on the lack of overt action against journalists or newspapers as well online websites. However with the multiplicity of civil suits and serial threats of dire punishments against news practitioners for real or imagined slights, the 2007 World Press Freedom Index for Malaysia is expected to decline to the level of 2005.  

The biased news reports in the Machap and Ijok by-elections bears sad testimony that press freedom as promised by Abdullah is in tatters. Since Abdullah has refused to fulfill his promises laid down in the 2004 general elections, it is up to Malaysians to stand up for press freedom in the coming general elections.