LETTER | Suara Rakyat Malaysia (Suaram) is aware of the recent posting made by Sydney Yap Xi Ni’s (above) Facebook post regarding the working condition as a journalist in Bernama and the latter’s impending legal action against Yap for defamation.

Suaram is concerned the legal action would create a chilling effect on the whole reporting scene and media environment which may do further damage to the already backsliding free press in Malaysia. We, therefore, urge Bernama to retract all legal actions against Yap and instead focus its attention on addressing the issues that she has raised.

Some of the issues that Yap has raised in her Facebook post include the welfare of news reporters, wage cuts, downsizing of news programmes, staff shortages and a bureaucratic hiring process.

From a labour point of view, we believe that these are entirely appropriate and legitimate issues to be raised pertaining to worker rights, especially when previous efforts by Yap to reach out to the Bernama president Ras Adiba Radzi were ignored.

Furthermore, Yap’s posting has also indicated that she will not continue working in the media industry, and thus she is merely sharing her personal work experience and commenting about the deteriorating media industry in Malaysia.

It is common knowledge that working as a reporter and journalist in Malaysia is challenging and has proven to be no easy task. Malaysia’s press freedom performance is still only ranked 119 among 180 countries, according to Reporters Without Borders.

Aside from working in an environment where press freedom is not guaranteed, the Covid-19 pandemic and the recent economic downturn have also pushed the media industry into a more perilous state where the welfare of reporters is regularly being cut or not prioritised.

It is also time for Malaysians to recognise the importance of journalists and reporters who have been performing the duty of the watchdog on those that wield significant political power.

A healthy and independent media industry would effectively allow the public to make informed decisions, hold leaders accountable and ensure a diversity of opinions and information.

With this, we hope that the media will continue to listen to the voices of fellow journalists and reporters, for they are the ones working on the ground and reporting on news to the wider public.

Suaram stands in solidarity with Yap and once again urges Bernama to retract all legal actions against its departing worker.

SEVAN DORAISAMY is the executive director of Suaram.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.