Yesterday I wrote at length about the Fourth Estate or traditional media chiefly represented by the Print Media like The Star, The NST and theSun (Sorry my hands are just two, so I can't try to cover English media in Sarawak/Sabah, and for the Chinese and Bahasa and Tamil press, my thousand AP!)
Recently a group of Bloggers led by Sdr Haris Ibrahim, a civil rights lawyer whom Desi has the privilege of interacting a bit or byte, launched a partial Boy/Galcott of MSM (mainstream media) on Tuesday, diluted action from a total boycott as I believe they listened to Other Voices, including Capt Yusof Ahmad aka Ancient Mariner, and Desi's too on revision of a boycott for about two months from the Bersih Rally, but that's already recorded in my eralier Posts.
I deem Haris Ibrahim's post on the Media developments involving the complete buyover of theSun's shares by Vincent Tan highly relevant and important for readers in order to see the BIG PICTURE. YL will try to spin a thread among what appears to be OMINOUS TREND OF TIGHTER CONTROL OF THE MSM.
Meanwhile, digest the following, borrowed or stolen, or plagiarised from:
The People’s Parliament
We are here, not because we are law-breakers; we are here in our efforts to become law-makers -- Emmeline Parkhurst
Letter to theSun from the Hartalmsm committee
February 15, 2008
On 28th January, the hartalmsm committee launched the ‘Boycott the newspapers’ initiative at the Blog House. You can read about that HERE.
3 days later, theSun published Jacqueline Ann Surin’s ‘Separating fact from fiction’ which, as it turned out, was to be her last column in that daily.
On 12th February, the committee sent a letter to theSun Newsdesk in response to Jac’s last column. We have since checked and to-date, our letter has not been published.
We have, however, received a response to the same by Jac on 13th February. I shall not publish Jac’s reply here unless I have her consent to do so.
The letter sent by the committee appears below.
______________________________
Dear editor,
When theSun assistant editor Jacqueline Ann Surin cautions the public that “we really shouldn’t believe everything we read”, her advice should aptly preface her own writing.
In her Jan 31 column headlined ‘Separating fact from fiction’, she alludes to an e-mail circulated in two e-groups which is “highly inaccurate”. We have managed to trace the original e-mail in question and Hartal MSM – the committee managing ‘Boycott the Newspapers!’ campaign – finds that it is Surin who is misrepresenting the situation, not the author of the e-mail.
The message writer has since clarified in his e-group’s open forum that “in the wake of recent events in Malaysian society, this new move [Berjaya acquiring Nexnews] may be perceived as a step back for freedom of the press”. His misgivings have a legitimate basis and are shared by The People’s Parliament, media observers, other social watchdog organisations and civil society in general.
Surin reads the e-mail as implying theSun’s “editorial team had been changed with immediate effect and that notable columnists no longer had their columns” following your newspaper’s takeover by Vincent Tan. And she insists that this observation is “highly inaccurate”.
To any impartial observer, the validity of the e-mail is easily borne out. Prior to the recent developments, Ho Kay Tat held two positions – theSun group editor-in-chief cum managing director. Chong Cheng Hai was editor and Zainon Ahmad, political editor.
After Tan stepped his other foot into theSun, Zainon was promoted to consultant editor while Chong became acting editor-in-chief, relieving Ho. Chan Kien Sing from Berjaya is now managing director of Sun. Ho is no longer to manage your paper.
These facts speak for themselves.
However, the icing on the MSM misinformation cake is that Surin’s own column has been discontinued because of her ‘return’ to The Edge. This fact not only speaks for itself but also reveals the irony of Surin’s attempt to deny the veracity of the e-mail.
It is this sort of spindoctoring and skewing of the narrative that leaves print media readers with gaps in their understanding unless they read online to fill in the blanks as we do. Publishing innuendo is not being “conscientious and responsible” to facts and accuracy.
It is precisely for these and other reasons that The People’s Parliament has called for a boycott of Malaysian newspapers. We trust that your readers will see our rationale, that is, if your paper elects to publish this letter.
Hartal MSM committee The People’s Parliament
Posted by Haris Ibrahim Filed in Boycott the newspapers
DESIDERATA @1.00pm: TO BE CONTINUED LATER as I need to tie up the bits abd pieces to spin into a web. "Spinning" has taken on a bad press as is practised blatantly by the MSM since a few weeks back as the natyion moves into GE MODE, and will only get worse as March 8 looms nearer. Hence, the role and responsibility of the emergent Fifth Estate becomes heavier and more demanding.
PS updated Monday Feb 18, 2008:
As I had been "on the move" trying to meet deadlined writing, I apologise if I just leave behind further thoughts on the 4th and 5th Estates and will come back later, Godwilling/InsyaAllah, to this subject. But one point to stress:
The Fourth Estate as is prominently seen of the daily newspapers is mainly in the hands of the rulng/incumbent government Component parties -- UMNO, MCA and MIC in the peninsula, which I am focusing on while the TV stations are 100% in Government's control. A recent development of much sadness to the media fraternity is to see theSun's share ownership completely sold to one tycoon, VINCENT TAN, and the past "investigative journalism" which won the Journalists like R Nadeswaran and Terence Frenandes awards, will certainly die a quick death. Remember this tycoon featured prominently in the just ended Royal Commission of Inquiry's testimonies in the famous/notorious VK LINGAM VIDEO TAPE SAGA/SANDIWARA. More on this in the next peice on the THIRD ESTATE or the JUDICIARY.
No comments:
Post a Comment