Friday, May 02, 2008

What a headline...

Do you want to know how our government is portrayed in the Australian media?

The headline in today’s The Australian said Newspaper raid 'like in Malaysia'.

The daily was referring to a police raid to the Perth-based The Sunday Times on Wednesday, to investigate a source-story carried by the daily about election funding.

Read more about the raid and the attack of press freedom here.

I was surprised about the raid for I didn’t think for a moment it would have happened in Australia. And then when I saw The Australian headline this morning, I realised how bad the media industry must have felt too over the raid.

Anyway, the headline is correct. I should now. I was there when the police raided my organisation in 2003.

The timing of the headline could not have come at a more appropriate time for me. I was part of a forum on the future of journalism today and among the questions I was asked related to press freedom in Malaysia.

Interestingly the audience wanted to know if the media laws in Malaysia would be relaxed and if ISA would be done away with.

There was also a question of Anwar taking over the government and if his government would be a good news for the media in Malaysia.

One thing is sure, the audience - basically people from the journalism and related fields - are keeping a close watch on what’s happening on our shores for they too want what most of us want - a free media and a responsible government.

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