Charles F Moreira's perspective on press freedom in Malaysia begs a closer look.

With the power to determine what is news concentrated into the hands of the political elite, press freedom in Malaysia is the freedom of the powerful.

It is the government, with its impressive network of news outlets of mass circulation capable of blanket coverage of the nation, that has the diversity of choice. And with it, they spread their interpretation of issues and events and manufacture consent.

It is a privilege begotten of the right to limit diversity of sources and opinions available to the audience.

On any issue of current concern, there would be a range of views on what ought to be done in the most 'free' area of the press, editorials.

Most views in the crony press are politically correct. The politically correct view is usually the shallow, fashionable view, the view least challenging to the more powerful players.

The spin is often about the wisdom of doing nothing much about the things that have gone seriously wrong in society.

For a public expecting the media to clarify issues with impartial, incisive and fresh analysis of current events, the drumbeat of similar rants in the flourishing and blooming mainstream is a depressing litany of 'the more, the sadder'.

If editorials are to reflect the soul of a newspaper that believes fairness is everything, then self-scrutiny can help. So can competition.

One argument for the freedom of speech is that only by a robust exchange of opposing arguments will the truth emerge. But the 'press freedom of the powerful' in Malaysia produces a blandness that threatens the democratic process.

It is possible to understand self-justifying practices in the face of stern and instant discipline. It is also profoundly disappointing that many journalists embrace self-censorship.

The issue of media freedom begs for courage and honest words because it touches on the relationship between the media and the public.

Without calling for the repeal of the Official Secrets Act, the call for freedom of information from a pro-government paper must be either a joke or a diversion.

Journalism that ignores its essential links with democracy threatens its own integrity. This perhaps is the basic reason for the deterioration of the mainstream press.

It takes more than the boom and bloom of the media industry to bolster media freedom. If anything, the democratic right to freedom of expression has been severely restricted over the years.

The ISA, the Printing Presses and Publications Act and the Sedition Act - just to mention a few controls - are part of the regulatory regime that intimidates or silences critical reporting.

The chilling reality of these threats is still within living memory - recall the 1987 'Operasi Lalang'.

The more recent harassment and raid of malaysiakini 's office must surely serve as a fresh reminder of the awesome power of those regulatory muscles.

Against such a grim backdrop, the perception of government loosening its grip on press control only attests to its outstanding and effective media management. That journalists like Moreira absorb the spiel and get caught up in the spin must be extremely comforting to the manipulators.

If anything else, the Multimedia Super Corridor Bill of Guarantee spotlights how the government straddles its competing desires for economic development and control.

Straddling is also a practice for journalists who moonlight as government consultants or members of the board of public corporations and public officials who moonlight in the press.

If journalists as individuals, or the press as an organisation, are perceived as overt players, it damages their credibility as prime witnesses. How then does the press accommodate public interest? What about the media's continuing connection to society?

As one young Malaysian said at an Aidcom forum , 'We don't want media to be pro- government. We want them to be pro-fairness.'

The woeful reality here is that journalistic professionalism has ceased to be a gainful virtue.