Answers to Media in Malaysia

To answer the questions below:

Do you feel that your local news sources are informative and objective enough? or do you need to look for reliable news sources elsewhere ie social media? What type of information is published in Malaysia that proves that there has been an attempt against national security?

In terms of local news sources, most sources are official and this is given during press conferences. The idea of objectivity is subjective. It depends on the beat and the influence of the beat. If it is politics then most times, objectivity is questionable. Journalists look for sources everywhere. More so today with the advent of social media. They always use facebook and twitter as a lead not as a solid source of information. The Malaysian media is influenced by the laws and regulation and the various sensitivities (race and religion) but this is becoming more open now. National security in Malaysia has always revolved around the issue of race and religion which sometimes can lead to a threat to national security (The recent Allah issue where Allah according to Muslims in Malaysia should only be exclusively for Muslims and not for Christians and was discussed at a judiciary level. There were lots of outrage and some fanatism where various groups were attacking churches and christians). In terms of internet censorship, there hasn't been any yet but there were discussions that claimed there were going to be internet censorship but the government has realized that it is impossible to do so and so we have the Multimedia and Communications act which in some ways monitors everything that is published and if it is in any way threatening national security then it comes under legal action.