Last year saw many scandals in Malaysia ranging from the Approved Permits (AP) monopoly, corruption during the Umno elections, to brutality and abuse of power by the police.

They reflect the chronic flaws in Malaysia's political system, which keep rearing their ugly heads and testify the urgent need for change.

However, towards the end of 2005, there were instances where media agencies were persecuted by the state for reporting and criticising such scandals - making a mockery of the call by the country's new leadership for citizens to speak the truth.

We hold that press freedom concerns the very foundation of liberal democratic governance hence feel the need to highlight these cases of interference in order to draw the public's attention to the issue and get the relevant agencies to explain.

We hold that press freedom is an important pre-condition for the country's political, social and economic progress. The interference or suppression of press freedom will no doubt set back the new leadership's anti-graft mission and their attempt to revamp the image of the government.

It will also shadow public discussions and the entire media industry with the fear of political repercussions, silence the critics, render impossible for public opinions to check against political corruption, and consequently frustrate the will for reform by the new leadership.

We call upon the ruling party to respect the separation of powers within the government structure, restrain from abusing the Executive's dominant position, allow the media and public opinions to monitor the exercise of power by the state, promote freedom in public debates, as a way to rebuild the liberal, democratic and constitutional rule in Malaysia.

Thanks to the media's persistent reporting on cases of police abuse, it has brought about new impetus for police reform and allows a window of opportunity for the public to examine the implementation of the recommendations in the report by the Royal Commission on the police. However, in the name of patriotism, the ruling parties are now persecuting the media and opposition parties who blew the whistles, effectively sidelining the overdue agenda for police reform.

Controlling the media

At the same time the government is showing its reign in the media, as seen in the following examples:

1. On Nov 29, 2005, Deputy Internal Security Minister Noh Omar threw his support for the police by saying, "If foreigners are not happy, they can leave Malaysia". This remark appeared in the evening edition of some Chinese dailies but were blacked out in the following morning editions. This is a clear example of how vulnerable the media is to political interference, with no institutional protection.

2. Towards the end of 2005, China Press received a letter from the Internal Security Ministry to show cause on why the paper reported untruthful news. While China Press headlined the words 'China woman's nude pictures in circulation' in its evening edition on Nov 23, the title was immediately changed to 'Suspicious nude video in circulation' the next day. News has it that other dailies have also received similar letters from the ministry. Worse, the ministry publicly proposed to have the license for China Press ' evening edition revoked or alternatively the chief editor sacked.

3. Oriental Daily and Nanyang Siang Pau have not received their new publishing license as of Jan 2, 2006, after the old ones expired last year. Such incidents highlight how instrumental is the power to renew publishing license on a yearly basis as an important means to control the press.

4. A meeting of multi-ethnic civil society groups to oppose the teaching of Mathematics and Science in English, convened by the Chinese education umbrella body, Dong Jiao Zong on Dec 10, stimulated lively debates. According to some sources, newspapers were soon warned not to actively follow-up on the issue or present the debates. Press coverage of the issue soon shrunk significantly, and even disappeared altogether in some cases. There is simply no room for the expression of dissident views. The extended censorship over another educational issue the SRJK Damansara's closure, is yet another proof of such media control.

5. Recently the administration of public universities have been charging students for promoting campus democracy, arousing public concern over the flaws in the University and University Colleges Act. The interview of a well known student activists in the 70s, Hishamuddin Rais by 8TV over its popular Chinese programme on current affairs, had reportedly annoyed the powerful Umno Youth. While there are some uncertainties over this episode, this may worryingly be another instance of ruling parties finding excuses to intervene in media operations.

The above are only the tip of the iceberg as far as media problems are concerned. The media here must also put up with the Sedition Act, Official Secrets Act, Internal Security Act, Printing Presses and Publications Act, Communication and Multimedia Act and other restrictive laws.

The ministers have been quick to use excuses such as 'threat to national interests and security' to prosecute the media, remove or freeze their publishing permits. These laws not only restrict media freedom, but also suppress the rights of citizens to debate public policies. They have closed the channels for the people to speak the truth, resulting in a lack of check and balance on the government and subsequently leading to unending scandals.

Stop the persecution

We hereby call upon the public to pay attention to the above issues, and would like to make the following points:

1. We support the media in exposing the patterns and instances of corruption in the government and in society and strongly oppose the government's interference. Any contention over the content of media reports should be referred to the courts and in the spirit of promoting media freedom and encouraging dissident voices. The media's autonomy must not be stripped away by the Executive.

2. The government should not interfere with the internal operation and content of the media. We oppose the government's vindictive actions to penalise certain media agencies and attempts to extract compromise of the media by holding ransom the renewal of their publishing licenses.

3. We oppose the current system where the papers are required to renew their licenses on an annual basis, which is nothing but a device of media control. We propose that the papers only need to register themselves with the government, instead of renewing licenses annually. Freedom of expression and publishing are the basic rights of the citizens which cannot and must not be arbitrarily robbed away by the Executive.

4. We propose that legislations such as the Printing Presses and Publications Act and the Communication and Multimedia Act which suppress freedom of expression, press freedom and freedom to publish, be abolished, ending the over-concentration of power in the hands of the minister in-charge. Instead, it is high time to legislate a 'Right to Information Act' or 'Freedom of Information Act' to regulate the circulation and use of government data, and to protect the citizens' right to know.

5. We hereby express our support and respect to the media agencies and journalists who have continued to expose injustice in society. Your courage and perseverance have given new hope to the cause of reforms in our society and politics. We ask everyone to stand up and be counted in defending media freedom so that the truth can be heard everywhere.

The above is a joint statement endorsed by many other civil society groups.