Go back to basics, CIJ tells media

(Harakah) - The Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ) has told the media to "go back to basics" after a lopsided coverage before the last March 8 election day that could have "backfired" and contributed to the opposition making significant gains in about four decades.

Executive director Gayathry Venkisteswaran said an adherence to ethical values and high professional standards was really "the first step in improving the media's credibility".

At a press conference that unveiled the CIJ election monitoring of the media here March 29, Gayathry said the reviews and changes by the media must "hinge on the fundamental role and purpose of journalism".

She said improvements would require "the removal of blocks of old patronage mindsets and passivity in upholding journalistic integrity". She dismissed cosmetic moves such as putting a highlight on any opposition figure that now headed a state government to the front page as adequate enough in restoring the role of the media in providing for "check and balance".

"Visibility (of opposition leaders in the media) is not an indication of change," she said.

Gayathry who noted that the struggle for the free media started in the 60's following the take over of the then Malay daily "Utusan Melayu" however contended that the future of the media in the country rely on the "ideologically driven" path to be taken by each media outlet rather than striving to achieve the desirable percentage of coverage for contesting side.

Obvious bias

She also contended that the solution to the "death" of real media might not lie in its anticipated reform but rather that the existing media houses need a bit of competition to constantly check that they were "doing justice to the profession".

She hinted that restrictive law such as the Printing Presses and Publications Act could have contributed to the quagmire the media find itself in and said the Act "must go".

CIJ relied on a total of 3,808 items from six newspapers in English, Malay and Tamil to measure the media contents on elections, ranging from news articles, editorials, opinion pieces, photographs and letter to the editors.

Among the three English dailies, CIJ noted that the "most pro-ruling government" was the Star with 63.12 percent of its space dedicated to the pro-ruling party.

It also had the smallest proportion of pro-opposition stories at 5.5 percent. Neutral stories took up 31.31 percent of its space.

In addition to "obvious bias" in the media, it was also observed that little space was given to issues of critical that matters to voters including the voices from the minority community, analysis of parties' manifesto and the strength of the parties.

Instead the focus was on personalities, superficial analysis of candidates and their issues and "little" meaningful debate, "despite the number of columns and spaces for opinion pieces".

The monitoring was done from Feb 24 to March 8.

Posted by Raja Petra
Tuesday, 01 April 2008
Malaysia Today