EDITORIAL | Amid the government's repeated warnings against the dissemination of fake news, it is regrettable that several media organisations have chosen not to heed this.
This is apparent in the reports regarding a comment piece published in the Malay section of Malaysiakini yesterday, which was also published in The Malay Mail Online.
At the bottom of the Malaysiakini article, it was clearly stated that the author Zulhazmi Shariff is member of Kedah DAP's legal bureau committee.
Citing the Federal Constitution, the article titled 'Apa salahnya DAP jadi TPM?' argued that there is nothing wrong with DAP setting its sights on the post of deputy prime minister.
Zulhazmi was responding to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's aide who challenged DAP leader Lim Kit Siang to "confess to his dream" of being appointed to the number two post.
However, Utusan Malaysia, Berita Harian, New Straits Times and TV3 claimed that it was Malaysiakini that endorsed or suggested DAP for the post.
On its front page, Utusan Malaysia states: "Malaysiakini sokong Kit Siang jadi TPM (Malaysiakini supports Kit Siang to be deputy prime minister)."
Whereas, the headline for NST's article on page 10 reads: "Malaysiakini: Lim eligible to be DPM".
The introduction paragraph states, "The pro-DAP news portal yesterday declared that party stalwart Lim Kit Siang is eligible to become deputy prime minister."
On the other hand, Berita Harian stated that "Malaysiakini suggested DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang to be deputy prime minister or prime minister."
However, to its credit, Berita Harian mentioned in the subsequent paragraph that Malaysiakini had reported the views of a party member.
The others did not state the article's author or that Malaysiakini had inserted the word "Ulasan (Comment)" in blue to make it clear to readers that the points raised are the views of the writer and not Malaysiakini's.
Giving them the benefit of doubt, perhaps all their journalists and editors, for some bizarre reason, suffered a collective lapse and missed the term "Ulasan" in blue, twice.
It could also be the case of these news organisations not reading the article in full, which is FREE, like all of Malaysiakini's Malay articles, and therefore missed the clarification at the bottom that the author is a DAP member.
If it is the latter, Malaysiakini would like to stress on the importance for journalists to read an article in its entirety before attempting to produce a report on it.
Then again, perhaps this is a concerted effort to spread fake news in order to malign Malaysiakini's reputation, since there was no mention of the other prominent news portal that published the same comment piece?
Whatever the motivation, Malaysiakini would like to remind these publications on the dangers of spreading false information and the importance of ethical journalism, which our honourable ministers have repeatedly stressed on.
Malaysiakini is also deliberating on inserting a disclaimer in all its articles in to avoid a similar incident.
So do not be surprised if in the future a Malaysiakini article quoting Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak is accompanied with a disclaimer that reads: 'Najib Abdul Razak is the prime minister of Malaysia and not a staff of Malaysiakini. His views do not necessary represent that of Malaysiakini.'
And for the record, Malaysiakini would like to reiterate that it is not pro-DAP, pro-opposition, pro-BN, pro-US, pro-Soros and God knows what else.
Malaysiakini is just pro-objective and professional journalism.
DISCLAIMER: Yes! This article reflects the stand of Malaysiakini.
