Penang Watch

The new Info Minister try to confuse readers by putting up a spurious proposition so he can rebut it: he dispute that control of Malaysia's mainstream media cause emergence of blogs. Well Malaysian govt is far from able to `cause emergence of blogs' -which is a new media brought about as a result from technological advance as well as the the spread of internet in Malaysia. Blogs do get popular -more so than in other freer countries, due to the exclusiveness of blogs as a platform to get news and views censored from maintream printed/free to air TVs/radios. That the Minister is avoiding. Blogs will continue even after Malaysia undergo a democratisation process as happened to Philippine, Thailand and Indonesia. But over there the blogs are not so in demand for critical views which are all over the places in mainstream print/electronic media! Blogs will go into other applications-it will not fade away due to the push from social and technological front.

May 21, 2008 23:02 PM

Control Of Mainstream Media Not Cause Of Emergence Of Blogs

KUALA LUMPUR, May 21 (Bernama) -- The assumption that control of the mainstream media (MSM) by the government was the cause of blogs to proliferate is not correct, said Information Minister Datuk Ahmad Shabery Cheek.

He said their emergence as an alternative source of information was not because of unfairness of the MSM, but instead was a worldwide phenomenon.

"This is the trend in the world now, not to say there no are no blogs in the United States or Australia where the media have more freedom... they (blogs) are everywhere and it is not right to make a conclusion that their proliferation in the country is because of media restrictions," he said when winding up debate for his ministry on the motion of thanks for the Royal address in the Dewan Rakyat Wednesday.

He also slammed certain opposition MPs who only viewed media freedom solely from the point of the capabilities of the local print and electronic media.

He said that although restrictions were imposed on the MSM, the government did not block the channelling of information through the Internet compared to other countries like China, Saudi Arabia and Iraq.

"The fact and reality is that Malaysia is not taking the path of these countries. This freedom is available in Malaysia and we do not have laws like in Iraq, deemed and advanced nation, but there are all kinds of restrictions on blogs. Relatively, there is much more freedom in Malaysia than compared to a lot of countries.

"As such, do not be myopic that there is no press freedom in the country by looking at just a few aspects and not admitting that the new media is given ample room to operate," he said, adding that a free media was not the be all for a good government.

On a proposal to have a media complaints commission, he said the government saw it as something that would be beneficial to the people and would be hold talks with related ministries on the matter.

He also said the government had no plans to have television stations specifically for Sabah and Sarawak as this would jeopardise national integration but was taking steps to ensure the two states received more coverage.

This would be made easier when Radio Television Malaysia's (RTM) digitalisation exercise was completed soon, he said.

On calls by MPs to have live telecast coverage of parliamentary proceedings increased from the 90 minutes at present, he said the matter was being studied, including impact on viewers.

He said the telecasts were garnering viewership of between 240,000 to 300,000 daily.

He also refuted claims that RTM placed more emphasis on entertainment programmes, saying the bulk of its contents was news presentation constituting 30.53 per cent of airtime.

Drama slots accounted for 10 per cent followed by entertainment (7.5 per cent) and films (5.71 per cent).

-- BERNAMA