As a young adult in an unaccredited college studying how to make short films, I never imagined myself working in the news field.

Whenever a relative suggested that I would scoff at the idea. Yet, life works in strange ways, and now it’s hard to imagine working in any field other than news.

It’s even harder - nigh impossible - to imagine working anywhere else but Malaysiakini.

As today's youth might say, Malaysiakini is my “ride or die”.

I started my career at a government-linked organisation, and Bersih 2 was one of the major events that occurred during my time there.

I was still doing occasional video editing work then, and I vividly recall being told - after my work had gone on air - that a minister had called to make sure we did not use visuals of police firing water cannons and tear gas at protesters.

Oops.

I was perhaps lucky that our outlet wasn’t widely viewed, and my “mistake” went largely unnoticed.

Besides the orders from “above”, what stands out in my memory is that those visuals of police aggression against demonstrators were one of the rare occasions I ever got to work with material that was critical of the government of the day.

Then in 2014, I joined Malaysiakini, and my eyes were truly opened.

No longer did I have to fear or comply with the whims of a minister or those who sought to please them, and I was free to hold truth to power - regardless of who was in power.

Major driving force

Such independence and desire to be objectively critical was a major driving force in Malaysiakini and helped set us apart from the rest.

For example, when most of the Malaysian media were forced to turn a blind eye to increasingly incriminating details about the 1MDB scandal, we persevered in publishing revelation after revelation.

Friends in other news portals would often lament how they wished they could publish stories like Malaysiakini did.

So, when offers to join other media organisations would come my way, it was never a difficult decision to turn them down, even when better pay was promised.

I knew I could never accept being told that some things could not be reported, or that I had to fawn over a political master.

Malaysiakini was freedom, and that freedom was priceless (although being paid a fair wage certainly helped).

Even after the media landscape opened up following the 2018 general election, such freedoms are still relative for many organisations.

Take the Ong Ing Keong case, for example.

It’s an open secret in the industry that some media have not been free to report on the case unless there are remarks by those in power.

Malaysiakini, on the other hand, has been at the forefront of continuously pressuring those in power to deliver justice for the deaf e-hailing driver.

It is part of our essence, to pursue justice and fight for what we believe is right, regardless of who is in power.

Threats to media freedom

However, self-censorship and political control are not the only threats to media freedom these days.

Evolving trends in news readership, dwindling advertising returns, and social media algorithms have destabilised the industry, and its impact has finally caught up with Malaysiakini.

The company has undergone a restructuring exercise to ensure our sustainability.

However, through this exercise and beyond, as Malaysiakini evolves and adapts to challenges, we will continue holding truth to power.

I am confident that we will continue doing so for quite some time.

And when the sun finally sets on Malaysiakini, there’ll not likely be another like it in our country ever again.

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