Online Journalism: The Malaysian Scene

By R.Ghazali From Leicester Even though Internet was introduced to the Malaysian public somewhere around 1995, but online journalism only came into Malaysian attention in the period of 1997-1998 and tremendously flourished afterwards. That was also the crucial time to Malaysian economy as well as political scene, for the reasons, firstly, it was the period when economic crisis in South East Asia blown Malaysian economy out of proportion, and secondly that was also the time when political crisis of the Malaysian two-top executives sparked into flames. As argued by Rosli Ismail, the Editor-in-Chief of Agenda Daily, “This is the problem with online journalism in Malaysia; it was born when Reformasi movement was established. The ‘not-the-right-time’ of arrival contributes to the preconceive discernment that online journalism in Malaysia is anti-establishment and soundly associated with the concern movement.” The post September 11 that had firmly established the jargon of ‘terrorism’, had also given certain collateral impact to some of the local online weblogs when more than a dozen of them were banned by Lycos and were consequently closed down. Some of them were seen as thrashes that carried materials associated with seditions, defamations and libels, especially those that were perceived and charged as supporting the Reformasi movement. The increasing numbers of online users also suggests that online journalism in Malaysia is gaining more and more attention and places it functionally as important as the mainstreams. Currently according to the IDC’s study, the Internet population in Malaysia stands at 8.6 million, which represented almost 35% of the total population. Specifically Agenda Daily Dot Com gained a total number of average 150,000 unique visitors per day and the number is getting bigger and bigger, while another Malaysian independent online named Malaysiakini Dot Com claimed to have more than 100,000 visitors per day. The statistics would reflect much bigger responses from the public if we consider the mainstream online version especially the Star online and the NSTP e-Media group. The Malaysian Multimedia and Communication Acts of 1998 promises that ‘No censorship would be applied on Internet content.’ This is inline with the concern ministry policy in promoting

Multimedia Super Corridor and ICT savvy among the people. This policy also opens some spaces for online journalism to go beyond the borders that the traditional media were and are unable to attain. However not to forget that other Acts that are abided by the print and electronic media are also applicable to the online journalism such as the Seditious Acts, Official Secret Acts as well as the ISA. Nevertheless since the existence of online journalism in Malaysia never of such Acts was taken into action against any online journalists for any offence that could be charged accordingly under those concern Acts. I would say that ‘press freedom’ is much alive or if not much freer environment is established. As argued by former Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Musa Hitam and Nordin Sophie during the 2004 post-election Seminar at ISIS, the press freedom is much freer in the era of the new premiership as compared to the former. As the Reformasi movement deteriorates or rather generally slowing down in their activities especially immediately after and before the recent election and significantly reflected by the landslide win of Barisan National, the image of online journalism turns to shine and glitter and giving more promising roles for nation-building agenda. When I embarked a research on the role of online journalism in promoting national integration, 67.3% out of 52 respondents among the GO leaders, NGO leaders, media practitioners as well as academicians and media experts, strongly proved that online media has some significant roles while another 26.9% believe that it carries some form of roles. In fact they believe that online journalism could play a better role as compared to the mainstream media as there are more spaces for open discussion, minority voices, views of NGOs, and constructive criticism on matters that concerned Malaysian public sphere. A total of 40 % among the media experts perceived that online journalism, specifically the independent news portals, enhances more understanding among the multi-races society of Malaysia. Not to say that the mainstream media fails to play a more constructive role, but there are more advantages in terms of traits and quality that the new media could promote. The merging of textual presentation, audio, video, slides and pictures tell the world that the new media is changing the communication scene. Other than that, the availability of personal selection, the huge archive, the massive links to other online news portals, the timeliness, the diverse and in-depth reporting, the time-saving management as well as borderless coverage, which differ the online and the traditional media has triumphant the new media in the heart and minds of the audience. Moreover, the new generation are getting and establishing a stronger relationship with the online, which in the near future would create some form of intellectual shift as what had happened when Guttenberg printing machine was invented and when radio was introduced to this planet. Most of the respondents would say that the free of licensee system would have given more opportunity to the online to have diverse opinions and views but somehow or rather, objective journalism has pulled more public attention towards them. Many would argue that less control and less censorship quality of the new media have opened new avenues in terms of news presentation, press freedom and democratic spaces. However there are also questions pertaining to the issue of control in the sense of authority monitoring. This raised the question whether no control good for social harmony? Parallel to that I would like to note that 72.7% of the respondents would prefer to have social harmony if they were to be given a choice of choosing between social harmony and ideal democracy. As we could see the Malaysia way of democracy is better managed by the ‘guided’ principle and that had proven to be better, if not best, as we are better in terms of political and social stability when compared to the other Third World nations especially in this region. Or it is just a matter of excuse in sustaining the status quo or do Malaysians too complacent to test the border? One important finding in this research is that 86.5% of the respondents argue that online journalism is more critical as compared to the traditional media, but surprisingly 75% of them agree that criticism supports national integration, it promotes democracy and freedom of the press, it generates intellectualism and last but not least it helps the state to rectify its weaknesses. However 19.2 % perceived online journalism as detrimental to national integration as it gives too many spaces to open criticism towards the state, which could also promote hatred, commotion and chaos that would probably jeopardise social harmony. Nevertheless 90.4% of the respondents would like to see more online journalism be augmented in the Malaysian scene.

R.Ghazali was a freelance writer and a lecturer at UiTM. Currently he is a PhD candidate at Leicester University, England specialising in area of Online Journalism.

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