Unfulfilled promise of openness

Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders have issued their annual report on Press Freedom.

On Malaysia, it said that Prime Minister Abdullah has still not fulfilled the promise of openness which he made when he came to power in 2003.

The report added that censorship and self-censorship have not gone away and media concentration in the hands of the families of government members has been further boosted this year.

An excerpt of the report reads:

“...Sensitive subjects are censored or avoided completely. For example, in March, demonstrations against a hike in the price of petrol went off without any coverage in the main media...In the same way, in November, police summoned several journalists to tell them to cut back their coverage of a particularly grisly murder in which police officers were implicated.”

Read the full report here.