The Business Times, Singapore 21st March 2001

NST editor says media lost credibility due to calls to downplay incidents

A TOP Malaysian English newspaper yesterday urged the government to give the local media freedom to report fully on problems concerning national unity and ethnic relations.

The New Straits Times group editor Ahmad Talib said the local media had lost its credibility because it had to comply with directives from the authorities to either downplay such incidents or not report them at all.

This led to a tendency among the public to believe in rumours, he was quoted as saying by the Bernama news agency at a dialogue between media editors and members of the National Unity Advisory Panel.

Editors of other Malaysian newspapers also criticised the lack of free flow of information with regard to recent ethnic clashes.

"Our national unity is still fragile but the media cannot really report the truth because of the various restrictions, so the media is made a party to this window-dressing," Mr Ahmad said.

"We have to be allowed to report the truth. If the media is restricted from reporting the truth, then we are not doing our job in fostering national unity. The mainstream media has a responsibility towards national unity but if we are allowed only to report half-truths, over the years of this indoctrination, we become part of the window-dressing process."

Mr Ahmad said the public would be deprived of correct information if the media was not allowed to do its job and "call a spade a spade".

According to Bernama, the dialogue focused on recent clashes between ethnic Indians and Malays in a poor suburb outside Kuala Lumpur that left six people dead.

Fifty people were also injured and 230 people arrested during four days of violence, which broke out on March 8.

The Malay-language Berita Harian group editor Ahmad Rejal Arbee said: "It took a few days before what actually happened was officially told to the media. It could have been defused much earlier if only it was handled properly."

Aziz Ishak, senior news editor at another Malay daily Utusan Malaysia, said crisis management remains weak in Malaysia and this was again exposed during the clashes.

"As far as the flow of information to the media is concerned, the incidents were not well-handled and we need to do something about this," he said. -- AFP