COMMENT | It is said that journalists write the news, not make it. In Malaysia, they do both intermittently.

In 2004, three Malaysian journalists, part of a 35-strong team of the Joint Media Team Malaysia (JMTM) who were covering the US invasion of Iraq, were kidnapped but later released. Among them was my former colleague, Terence Fernandez.

Officialdom claimed they had disobeyed strict orders concerning personal safety.

“All JMTM members were given specific orders on what to do and how to move around once they were in Baghdad,” the co-ordinator, Zukri Valenteno, then aide to then information minister Khalil Yaakob, said.

“The team’s brief was simple - journalists were supposed to get in, capture the suffering of the Iraqis and get out. All they had to do was stick to that.

“A few wanted to be heroes and failed to follow orders. They began doing stuff on their own, went to places and did things that were not part of the team’s brief,” he said.