Week Five // News & Me (Part 2)

Task 1 : Write a short essay of about 400 words about the below stated issue: news and you, again. Who owns the newspapers and TV stations in your country? Do you think this has an effect on the news that you hear?

First of all, the media of Malaysia covers television, radio, newspapers, and web-based media such as bloggers. There are a lot of media outlets are either owned directly by the government of Malaysia (e.g. Bernama) or owned by component parties of the Barisan Nasional coalition government (e.g. the Media Prima group, which is owned by the United Malays National Organisation). Since conventional media is so tightly controlled by the government, Malaysia has a lively alternative media scene, characterized by such news portals as Malaysiakini and The Malaysian Insider which take advantage of the government's pledge not to censor the Internet despite its stranglehold on most mass media outlets. There are over 30 newspapers and tabloids published mainly in Malay, English, Chinese and Tamil.

List of Newspaper:
English language – The Star, The Sun, New Straits Times, Malaysian Today and etc.

Malay language – Berita Harian, Utusan Malaysia, Harian Metro, Kosmo!, Siasah and etc.

Chinese language – China Press, Guang Ming, Sin Chew Jit Poh, Nanyang Siang Pau and etc.

Tamil language – Makkal Osai, Malaysia Nanban, Tamil Nesan and Vanakkam Malaysia.

Online newspapers – Malaysiakini, Merdeka Review, Agenda Daily, BERNAME and etc.

List of TV Station:
Asia Media – Asia Media TV KL, Asia Media TV JB

Radio Televisyen Malaysia – TV1, TV2, TVi, RTMi

Media Prima – TV3, NTV7, 8TV, TV9

Mega TV – CNN International News, Discovery Channel, ESPN, HBO and Cartoon Network

Astro – Ria, Vaanavil, STAR World, MTV, Wah Lai Toi, AEC, SuperSport and etc.

As we know, most of the mainstream media in Malaysia is mainly owned by political parties and heavily regulated by government. The censorship is applied to control media content to avoid unnecessary disturbance to the “national” security. The regulated freedom of the press has been criticized. Although critics concede that journalists "probably won’t be hauled off and shot" for being critical of the government, it has been claimed that the government creates a chilling effect through threats of reduced employment opportunities and refusing journalists' family members "a place at one of the better public universities". Legislation such as the Printing Presses and Publications Act have also been cited as curtailing freedom of expression.

In the nutshell, the overall idea has affected me on receiving the “real” news. The government has the power to control the news that may affected their reputation or even hidden the scandal exposure. Therefore, as a citizen of Malaysia, we have lost our rights of the freedom of press. It’s not fair and also known as inhuman treatment to us as it took away our human rights.

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