Journalism

Murder, violent deaths, and femicide are one of the most common frontline of many newspapers in Honduras. Accompanied with tabloid headlines,  and raw violent pictures.

It is a common practice for journalists to request helpers to uncover bodies so they may be able to take pictures so they can publish them in newspapers, or even further and  broadcast them on television. In order to produce the different coverage of news available about murders, or femicides every journalist has to go to be present at scenes of crimes and interview the police, firemen, and sometimes relatives or the family but due to having fear of retaliation some relatives refuse to give an opinion or avoid going out in the newspapers.

(B2) What Does It Mean Being A Malaysian?

To me, being a Malaysian, it’s just not getting the blue identity card or the red passport but it’s who we are, i.e. the culture, behaviour and language. I’ve been brought up the Malaysian way, so no doubt I feel an affinity to my country despite the media highlighting racial discrimination. I cannot deny that the news reports regarding race, religion and ethnicity has not affected me, but every country has its issues and what not and I choose to not let it bother me. I will not be influenced of how I view of other races by these news reports. Yes, I do find it unfair for a certain race to criticize other races or certain race has privileges but it is what it is. Racism exists in other parts of the world; it would be a never-ending issue which continues to gain the attention of the media.

I do respect all cultures in my country. In fact, few of my close friends aren’t Chinese. I celebrate their festivals and enjoy eating their food. Ask any Malaysian whether they think if their food is the best in the world and I can guarantee their answer is YES. Besides that, our ‘special’ language, Manglish, is one of the unique identities in my country. We tend to combine different languages in one sentence. Only in Malaysia. In addition to that, my country tends to come together whenever Team Malaysia is involved in sporting event such as football and badminton.

Every country has the pro-government and opposition. There will always be a party which isn’t satisfied with the other. Therefore, as a Malaysian citizen, we are given the choice to vote during the election, to voice your opinion, to change what you don’t like.

The grass is always greener the other side of the world. Many Malaysians have the perception of developed countries such as USA, Australia or United Kingdom is much better, safer and advanced compared to Malaysia. That is because the way media frames these countries. The media portrays these countries as though it is a "perfect" country with capable presidents, happy citizens. Therefore, Malaysians are influenced to think that they are perfect and despise our home. But know this, every country have their internal and external problems, the bad news just does not get to pass to our ears. I have friends who further their studies overseas, they strongly agree that Malaysia is a better country than the others. Furthermore, Malaysia is one of the few countries that does not have natural disaster (exception of the 2004 tsunami). We are ought to be lucky to be Malaysian, really really lucky!

As to be a Malaysian student, we are definitely fortunate. We are very fortunate to the extend of Malaysian students are spoon-fed. In the third world countries, attending school would be a privilege; some countries even banned girls from attending school. This does not happen in Malaysia. In my country, children are given free education from primary to secondary education. Tertiary education is not as expensive compared to our neighbouring countries such as Singapore and Hong Kong. There are wide choices of tertiary education institution in Malaysia. Besides that, students are given free text books in primary and secondary school. In addition to that, our government provide all students BB1M book voucher (RM250) to purchase books. This book voucher is extremely useful of us universities students. Government and non-government organizations also offer many scholarships and loans to students. In my opinion, being a Malaysian student, we are given many privileges. We ought to be grateful.

Ask me if I'm proud to be a Malaysian, my answer is a definite YES!

B2 Concept “1Malaysia”

 Talking about multi-racial, multicultural, heaven of food, and etc, that would be Malaysia, a beautiful land in East-South Asia.

I was born and raised in Malaysia, so-called Malaysian. As a Malaysian, it meant to be unity among ethnics. There are several ethnics in Malaysia, Malay, Chinese, India, and some natives including the Iban, Kadazan, and etc.  “1Malaysia” campaign was announced by our prime minister Najib Tun Razak on 16 September 2010 and is still in progress in today. But, there was no any result so far. The concept of “1Malaysia” is seemed to have great succeed among the people. In my opinion, people of Malaysia is united by music, foods, and etc. It is the difference in our culture, our language, our lifestyle that brought us together. Together as a Malaysian, we learned to be tolerate each other, to respect each other, to accept the difference among us and to be proud as a Malaysian.

But as a Malaysian, we don’t really get what we deserved, the truth. The part of media is mostly controlled by the government. They decide what we should know about and restricted those journalism who were trying to reveil those unveil truth. Using the media they controlled, the government is often creating racial issue that directly and indirectly causing the negative emotion and behaviour among us. Though, this couldn’t be work on the younger generation like us. As what I mentioned, is the difference between the ethnic that united us. Personally to me, it won’t have any effect on me as I rather to believe in what I saw and what I know. Public transportation, food court, mamak stall, schools, from these places not hard to find out that all of the ethnic was actually live in peace. We play together, create precious memory together, and had the help reach to those who need it, despite what races he or she belongs to.

In some ways, the concept of “1Malaysia” is always exist among the Malaysian. The government was just using it as an excuse to cover up what they had done.

Info about Honduran journalism

Hi guys I`m Oscar and I just want to share with you all a little bit of what we are living with our journalism today in our country. It is sad but it is the truth. But it has a bright side too but I`ll start with the bad news first.

here you go:
http://pencanada.ca/news/pen-canada-releases-honduras-report/


It`s a pleasure to be interacting with you all, I`m enjoying this very much. Take care.

Enslaved Freedom in Democracy

(Source: http://sdmeadows.com/the-pursuit-of-freedom-joy-in-experiencing-being-the-true-me/)

Democracy is the government of the people, by the people, for the people. – Abraham Lincoln

Even though the Malaysian government advocate democracy, the nation is only partial democratic as it is ruled by a single political party, the National Front coalition (Barisan Nasional). The government is in control of the political, economic and social aspects of the country. It of course includes the media, which is an impactful and effective agent of socialization nowadays. Most of the print media (newspapers) and electronic media (radio and television) organizations or stations are owned by or closely associated with the government. Therefore, the news published are more pro-government and in favor of the ruling political party. The Printing Presses and Publication Act, Sedition Act, Broadcasting Act and Defamation Act are some examples of the manoeuvres legislated by the government to have control over the media in Malaysia.

"Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference, and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers" – Article 9, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

The Federal Constitution of Malaysia is the supreme law of the country. Every citizen has the right to freedom of speech and assembly as stated in the Article 10 of the constitution. However, the exercise of freedom of speech is indeed restricted with many different kinds of justification regarding racial harmony and public order. Professor Dr. Shad Saleem Faruqi, a professor of Law, has argued that the Malaysian Federal Constitution has a weak provision for freedom of speech primarily because of the  amendments following the May 13, 1969 racial riot, known as the Sensitive Matters Amendment to allow Parliament to impose restrictions on eight grounds – public order, national security, incitement and offence, friendly relations with other states, contempt of court, contempt of Parliament, defamation, morality” (the Sun daily, 1 October 2005). Censoring publications, suspending licenses to media organizations and restricting access to information manifest the repression of press freedom by the Malaysian government. Malaysia has hit the ranking of 147 out of 180 countries in the latest World Press Freedom index. (The Malaysian Insider, 12 February 2014)

Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. – Exodus 20:16

Personally, the Malaysian audience deserves to know the truth behind every news. The money flow of the nation, the property of the political leaders, the affairs of the royal family, the intention of the government, the phenomenon of a crime should be transparent and objective. The news published should not leave a large room of subjectivity which may lead the audience to make unnecessary speculations. Numbers, figures, statistics, names, authority should be made clear, verified and attached with the news published. Moreover, I believe the golden principle of journalists is to strive for the truth. I am truly inspired by the passion and professionalism of journalists who are publishing the news as accurate as it is. Unfortunately, in Malaysia, with an enormous amount of boundaries which ban sensitive issues regarding race and religion, journalists are limited to only writing very shallow news or even forced to publish articles that are pro-government. Journalists’ freedom in exploring a news through science and producing it through art is indeed enslaved.

I will not fall into despair! I will keep myself hardy until freedom is opportune! – (Solomon Northup, 12 Years A Slave)

The only way for Malaysian journalists to escape from the ‘chains’ is online journalism. There are over 16 million internet users from the 28 million total population of Malaysia. Although the government has the intention to have control over the internet, it is an impossible mission. The young generation is active audiences who are well-educated, exposed to the digital media and shaped with better world views. Thus, if the government is to take control over the social media like Facebook and Twittter, there might be an uprising in Malaysia. Freedom of press is such a precious treasure that this generation of Malaysians will never want to lose it and will continue to fight for it at any terms.

References: 

-http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/

-http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/malaysias-press-freedom-ranking-drops-to-historic-low-of-147

-http://www.thesundaily.my/

-http://www.huffingtonpost.com/azeem-ibrahim/deteriorating-democracy-i_b_4813259.html

-http://www.rsog.com.my/media/558.pdf

B1 - Questionable Ethics of Journalism

 As a journalist, what does ethic to be meant to he/she? To seek the truth behind-the-stories, or to coordinate to the desires of government in controlling what are supposed the truth that they want the audience to know?

         In my opinion, the biggest difficulties faced by Malaysian journalists, are they are bound to the rules and regulations of Malaysia’s government and the guidelines for code of ethics that are trying to tell what are suppose a journalist should do and should not. Journalists could not tell whether they are playing safe games by following what government wants the audience to know by retaining their jobs and licenses or to seek the truth that as the code of ethics demanded them to. 

         By using news writing process as an example, before the news reach to the audience in wide nation, journalists get a chance to alter the content. This can refer to the second code of ethics mentioned by  National Union of Journalists Malaysia (NUJ), "In pursuance of this duty he will defend the twin principles: freedom in the honest collection and publications of news" and these have shown that journalists, no matter in broadcasting media or printed media, should have been only published the truth to the audience without any alterations. For instance, MalaysiaKini and authority of Democratic Action Party (DAP) have been overthrown the statement whereby they have attracted over 120,000 people to participate the first blackout 505 rally held at Kelana Jaya, Petaling Jaya, not 30,000 people only. There is no doubt that ethics of journalism in Malaysia have been doubted by the smart audience whether they are following the right tracks for the code of ethics or only make favorable judgements and news that desired by government and make it as their guidelines for code of ethics. Of  course, there  are still some journalists out there who are really still following the code of ethics for journalism, by staying loyal to the truth and seek for the truth of behind-the-stories. 

Sources:

- http://www.nujm.org/nuj/about.php - code of ethics by National Union of Journalists Malaysia (NUJ)

- http://anwaribrahimblog.com/2013/05/13/black-505-fever-hits-ipoh-with-30000-crowd/ - blog of Anwar Ibrahim

- https://mocsarawak.wordpress.com/2013/05/13/black-505-fever-hits-ipoh-with-30000-crowd/ - MalaysiaKini 

STUDENTS IN HONDURAS.

Based on discussion:

What do you think of the Honduran media? Is it free? not free? controlled? regulated?