I’ve been wondering whose madcap idea it was to stage that ridiculous inaugural ‘National Press Club-Naza Awards Night’ last week.

Was it the management of the notoriously mendacious ‘mainstream press’ in a doomed bid to retrieve some of the lost readership and revenue that their blatant pro-BN lies, spins and silences have cost their non-newspapers?

Was it Apco Worldwide, BN’s infamous public relations flacks, in an ill-advised attempt to lend an ersatz air of respectability to the government’s hopelessly prostituted ‘mainstream’ press hacks?

Or was it an independent initiative on the part of the Press Club itself, designed lift the morale, if not the morals, of its ‘mainstream press’ members?

NONE Whichever, this shameless attempt to celebrate Malaysia’s sham press certainly gave Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak a big club with which to give the truth a BN-style bashing.

“I would like you to be my partner in my journey to transform the country,” he began, thereby falsely implying that the management, ‘editors’ and ‘journalists’ of Malaysia’s mainstream press have any choice or desire but to be his partners in crime and slime.

Far from potential “partners” for the PM and his BN regime, these people are nothing but puppets; ventriloquist’s dummies mouthing the venomous lies and distortions dictated to them by their venal proprietors.

As long as we’re talking press awards here, let’s take a moment to review the list of media owned, controlled and pressed into its partisan service by BN and its cronies.

The roll of dishonour, based on a list compiled by hartalmsm.wordpress.com, includes:

  • Umno-controlled Media Prima’s TV3, NTV7, 8TV, TV9, FlyFM, HotFM, OneFM, New Straits Times, Berita Harian, Harian Metro, and Malay Mail ;

  • Umno’s directly-owned Utusan Malaysia, Mingguan Malaysia and Kosmo! newspapers , and Wanita, Hai, URTV, Harmoni, Saji, Kawan, Infiniti, Pemikir, Mangga, Al-Islam and Mastika magazines;

  • MCA-owned Star , RedFM, SuriaFM and 988FM radio stations and Kuntum, Shanghai, Galaxie and Flavours magazines; and

  • Samy Vellu-owned Tamil Nesan .
That, in anybody’s book, is a disgracefully-long catalogue of media to have toeing the BN line and misleading the nation with BN lies.

Mockery of code

This is especially in view of the fact that the ‘journalists’ working for these organisations pretend to abide by the following professional standards:

1. Respect for truth and for the right of the public to truth is the first duty of the journalist.

2. In pursuance of this duty he will defend the twin principles: freedom in the honest collection and publication of news; and the right of fair comment and criticism.

3. The journalist reports only in accordance with the facts of which he knows the origin. He will not suppress essential information or falsify documents.

4. He will use only fair methods to obtain news, photographs and documents.

5. Any published information which is found to be harmfully inaccurate he will do his utmost to rectify.

6. He will observe professional secret [sic] regarding the source of information obtained in confidence.

7. He will regard as grave professional offences the following:

  • Plagiarism
  • Calumny, slander, libel and unfounded accusations
  • The acceptance of a bribe in any form in consideration of either publication or suppression.
8. He recognises in professional matters, the jurisdiction of his colleagues only; he excludes every kind of interference by governments or others.

national union journalist nuj The Malaysian mainstream media’s systematic lying, distortion and suppression of news and views deemed contrary to the interests of their BN masters make a mockery of the code of ethics of the National Union of Journalists, especially items 1, 2, 3 and 8.

Sub-clause 3 of item 7 forbids both publication and suppression in return for a bribe in any form. ‘In any form’ presumably meaning everything from common brown envelopes to fat salaries, fringe benefits and political perks like datuk -ships.

Freedom ‘within the law'

    

In his awards-night speech, Najib tried hard to spin this corrupt and unholy alliance between the ‘mainstream’ newspapers and the ruling regime as a “symbiotic relationship” that is “absolutely critical to the future and Malaysia’s development as a nation”.

“The press needs to report on the government just as the government needs the press to communicate its message effectively to the people. I need the press to understand and appreciate the situation in the country, and to communicate effectively and educate the people.”

Of course this completely falsifies the proper professional responsibility of the press by pretending that its role is the running-dog of the BN government, rather than a watchdog to guard the people against government corruption, criminality and incompetence.

Nothing daunted by the transparency of his deception thus far, however, Najib went on to claim that “accusations that Malaysia lacked press freedom were grossly unfair” and add that “as long as the reports do not run afoul of our existing laws, the press is free to report on pretty much anything”.

azlan In other words, the only ‘freedom’ that the Malaysian press enjoys is that of abiding laws like the Printing Presses and Publications Act that BN has expressly enacted, in clear contravention of the constitution, to help keep the rakyat ignorant and itself in power.

So Najib’s statement that “I, for one, believe that the Malaysian media is something that we can all be proud of” was true enough, I guess, in that it was an expression of pride of ownership and control rather than an honest and objective evaluation.

Let’s face it, however, as anything resembling the Fourth Estate that it’s supposed to be, the Malaysian ‘mainstream’ press isn’t worth the paper it prints its lies on. So the very idea of its clubbing together to give out awards to itself is utterly laughable.

And so ludicrously at odds with all-too-evident reality that it doesn’t even rate an award as a sample of the kind of propaganda that it so prides itself on producing for its masters.

    

DEAN JOHNS, after many years in Asia, currently lives with his Malaysian-born wife and daughter in Sydney, where he mentors creative writing groups. Soon to be published in Kuala Lumpur is a third book of his columns for Malaysiakini , following earlier collections ‘Mad about Malaysia’ and ‘Even Madder about Malaysia’.