More than gaining the freedom to report on society’s problems Malaysian media must gauge it’s real contribution to the public‘s needs, especially at a time of increasing commercialisation.
"Press freedom is meaningful and important not only to journalists, but to society at large. With freedom of expression, more information becomes available to the people, ‘’ "With more information, people are empowered to participate in more activities affecting their lives. And to engage in discussion and debate, they must have freedom of expression... and so it goes."
At the same time, media must make this space for freedom of expression work in terms of addressing the human development needs of the society it claims to benefit.
"One of the causes of this inequality is 'knowledge poverty',"
Knowledge poverty, is the lack of information that helps prevent the impoverished from taking part in the economic, social and political processes around them. It also refers to the lack of transparency that leads to all types of corruption.
More media avenues do not necessarily mean media that produce information that addresses social needs and social change. "At the same time, media outlets are often monopolised by private interests and many journalists practice some form of self-censorship in covering sensitive topics," due to government's pressure or they might end up losing their publishing permit.
"Press freedom is not only about an individual's right to expression, but it's also about the value of making sure that important ideas are heard,"
"The challenge to free press grows more serious as we gain more in communication media and technology," "By the fact that some citizens out there are probably better informed than the journalists."
With so many media tools available to the public, journalists are hard pressed to engage readers with news that have to contend with more entertaining sources, .
"As news journalists, it is the job to make the news relevant. It is the job to engage the readers and connect them. If the readers think that the news is not worth reading, then the journalists are not doing their job.
"When it comes to media, it's easy for everything to become political and it's a good thing. It's also easy to cross over from something mundane to something serious."
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