COMMENT | Dark clouds hovering over journalists

COMMENT | One of the many basic mantras drilled into the mindsets of reporters early in their career is: There are always two or more sides to a story. Get the other sides of the story. Get comments and reactions from all parties.

Every journalist worth his or her salt will make efforts to seek comments and publish the comments from all parties even if they are mere one-line denials.

This is why readers often come across statements like “declined comment” or “did not respond to an e-mail with detailed questions about the issue”.

Editors usually do not publish until and unless the other parties are contacted, failing which, these rejoinders are used.

However, if responses come after publication, they too will be published subsequently on the principle that any aggrieved party has a “right of reply”.

Having said that, it is depressing to note that the government is going on a warpath with Al Jazeera despite having not taken the opportunities afforded by the TV channel to several government agencies to address issues raised.

Al Jazeera in a 25-minute documentary aired on July 3, titled “Locked Up in Malaysia’s Lockdown”, criticised Malaysia in its handling of undocumented migrants during the movement control order (MCO) enforced to contain the Covid-19 pandemic.

In the documentary, the journalists declared that they had sought the responses of Defence Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob, Home Minister Hamzah Zainudin and their deputies, prior to airing the report.

Agreed that ministers and deputies are busy people, but what about the ministries’ and the ministers’ press aides?

Shouldn’t they have acted as spokespersons - a responsibility for which they were employed in the first place?

Instead of addressing the boo-boo and reprimanding those running its internal media machinery, why is the government shooting the messenger?

And could Astro be the next target for providing the platform for the telecast to the nation?

When the government is falsely accused or does not agree with the manner a programme is presented, it has many recourses.

One of them is to hold a press conference and provide a true account with facts and figures or plausible explanations. Then any misconception is immediately corrected and rectified.

Instead of addressing the issues and clarifying the erroneous reporting (if any), it appears that the government is seeking to prosecute and punish not only the TV channel but also the witnesses who were interviewed.

Inspector-General of Police Abdul Hamid Bador (below) said the investigation will be carried out under several provisions of the Penal Code and Sedition Act.

“It is the police’s responsibility to investigate to see if there are any elements of sedition or wrongdoing,” he said, according to a video of his comments posted by news portal Malaysia Gazette.

Immigration Department director-general Khairul Dzaimee Daud threw in his lot by stating that foreign nationals who make inaccurate statements aimed at damaging the country's image will face the possible revocation of their passes.

Abdul Hamid claims Al Jazeera gave an inaccurate picture of the treatment of illegal immigrants during the fight against Covid-19.

That being the case, why can’t the “accurate” version be presented by the government instead of harassing the journalists?

A figment of our imagination?

This turn of events presents yet another frightening scenario - returning to the bad old days under the BN regime that even the mention of 1MDB was taboo.

The entire government - from cabinet ministers and senior civil servants to blind loyalists and highly-paid consultants - maintained that the 1MDB was a figment of the imagination of the then opposition.

Now, the results of such indoctrination have been laid bare in our courts of law.

Editors were detained, newspapers were banned and websites were blocked as part of a grandiose plan to present that everything was hunky-dory with 1MDB.

“The money is invested in units” was one line that was commonly used but the "units" are worth nothing - zero, zilch, kosong!

Does the government want the media to operate under a cloud of fear? Does it want to go back to the era when reading the mainstream newspapers was like reading a translation of the Pravda during the Soviet era?

Why the sudden surge in wanting to prosecute the media and practitioners? Is there another scandal a’la 1MDB in the making or have there been instances of personal and professional cases of indiscretion by our politicians that will be brought to the fore by journalists?

Currently, more than a dozen journalists are taking turns to give their statements to the police on the book “Rebirth: Reformasi, Resistance, and Hope in New Malaysia”.

What started as a complaint that the national coat of arms had been altered, the investigation has deliberately veered off course and spiralled out of control.

The book’s editor, publisher, writers, and whose names appear on the cover are being treated as if they are part of a conspiracy to overthrow the government.

The book has since been banned to give a new meaning to the adage “Don’t judge a book by its cover.”

The irony of it is that the articles in the book were previously published as columns and commentaries.

We have also seen the emergence of cheerleaders including academicians and political wannabes egging on the aggravation with their bird-brained theories.

Why is this government so afraid of the media? Hasn’t it realised that with the advent of information technology, it can no longer control what we can read or watch?

If you block a website (as it had been done in the past), there are ways of getting around it. In short, the government can no longer control the minds of its citizens.

With all these factors stacked against the recent actions, when will the government stop the witch hunt on journalists?

R NADESWARAN rejoiced when the era of editorial controls ended two years ago but it appears that the dark days are returning soon. Email him at citizen.nades22@gmail.com with your comments.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.