BN deputy chief Muhyiddin Yassin is the most quoted person in the media when it comes to attacking political opponents, according to a study.

He is found to have carried out 24.7 percent of the "attack politics" in the media, ahead of even his boss, Najib Abdul Razak (21.3 percent).

This was despite Najib being the most quoted political figure overall at 27.1 percent, almost double in volume compared with his deputy's 11.8 percent.

NONE Another significant participant engaging in "attack politics" is former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who trails just behind Muhyiddin at 18.5 percent.

"Together, these three BN politicians are responsible for 64.5 percent of all political attacks made overall. This is only partially attributable to their high use as sources in media reports," said the preliminary report released today.

The study was conducted by the University of Nottingham and NGO Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ), which monitored 29 media outlets between April 7 to April 15 to produce this report.

These includes English, Malay, Mandarin and Tamil reports in newspapers, TV news broadcasts, online news portals and from the national news agency Bernama .

Among opposition politicians, the researchers found that DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang is responsible for the most political attacks (13.9 percent), followed by DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng (4.5 percent) and PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim (4.3 percent).

Overall, BN politicians are responsible for 67.7 percent of all political attacks in the media, as compared to 27.1 percent for Pakatan Rakyat politicians, and 5.3 percent for other groups and individuals.

When it comes to being used as sources, the study also found that the top three - namely Najib, Muhyiddin, and Mahathir - form the bulk of political news sources (46.9 percent).

Trio leads as political sources

“Their combined use as sources is larger than that of the rest of the top 10 sources combined, and represents almost half of all source usage tracked...

“Election Commission (6.9 percent; 4th ranking) spokespeople are used as sources more often than any Pakatan Rakyat politician,” the report added.

NONE The most quoted opposition politician is Kit Siang (6.28 percent; 6th ranking), who trails just slightly behind MCA president Chua Soi Lek (6.31 percent 5th ranking).

As a whole, BN politicians are quoted as sources 55.4 percent of the time, compared to 20.7 percent for Pakatan Rakyat politicians, and 23.9 percent for independent and other political figures.

Examples of those classified as independent sources for this study include Bersih co-chairperson Ambiga Sreenevasan, the Election Commission, pro Malay-Islam NGO Jati founder Hasan Ali, and members of the general public.

Other findings include:

  • The politicians from BN and Pakatan Rakyat are mentioned almost equally often in news reports (50.7 percent and 45.5 percent respectively).
  • Bernama reports often quote BN and independent political figures (51.3 percent and 43.5 percent respectively) talking about Pakatan Rakyat politicians (45 percent of coverage, despite being quoted only 5.2 percent of the time).
  • In contrast, the television news broadcasts talk about BN politicians the most (74.1 percent of mentions).
  • The online media discusses independent political figures more than any of the other three mediums (7.2 percent). It is also “most equitable” in quoting sources, with BN politicians having quoted 44.5 percent of the time, while the remainder is equally split between Pakatan Rakyat politicians and independent political figures.