I find it difficult to believe that the Webmasters of Seachange Malaysia, in their article, [#1] Voices of Backlash [/#] (6 April), can truly claim to be the champions of the Malaysian media. If anything, they are an inconspicuous addition to the already overflowing hot pot of what they themselves call the "supine mainstream media".

Any medium of communication to the masses, be it newspapers, television, radio or electronic publication, needs to be objective in its claims and arguments if it is to be taken seriously.

By their own admission, the Webmasters of Seachange Malaysia refuse to be objective, claiming that they "are one-sided because we do not praise him [Dr Mahathir Mohamad]".

Any writer who claims to champion the cause of another, no matter how mundane, must meet the daily challenges of accurately translating the often arcane and complex news of an event in an objective and unbiased manner.

In many cases, their reporting must also attempt to objectively put said events into a historical, personal, political, economic or social context. To simply quote the shortcomings of others, as the webmasters have done, is not being objective. While writers should be adept in balancing the conflicting opinions of the masses, they should also include the influence of potential socio-political differences, for example. Merely portraying the views of a single section of society with ambiguous terms of writing will not afford the writer much credibility.

The work of reporters, in this sense, is important because they remain the chief conduit between actual events as they happen and the public masses. Their reporting needs to inform the public about critical issues to aid public debate on various aspects of intellectual understanding. Writers who maintain a biased and closed frame of mind cannot, and will not, write objectively, let alone be considered in any serious manner.

The webmasters ask, "Where are the voices of outrage? Where is the public anger, the boiling blood?" These are issues one would not expect to find in a truly unprejudiced and fair piece of writing. It is a shame that in a nation where objective mediums of communication - malaysiakini included - continue to struggle against the overbearing nature of the mainstream media, there are those who claim to champion this cause when in fact they do little to promote its progress.

The voices of outrage, public anger and boiling blood are around; there is little doubt about that. But a truly good writer should be able to overlook any prejudice he or she may have in reporting objectively to the masses.

This thus begs the question: Are the webmasters of Seachange Malaysia merely putting forward their prejudices or are they reporting accurately and objectively? I am inclined to take the former choice.

Editor's note

: Seachange Malaysia is not a news website and did not claim to be so. It is a forum for the "voices of backlash" and explicitly states its purpose and inclination. Also, its webmasters did not claim to be "champions of the Malaysian media".