The struggle of the brave people of the Philippines for democratic freedom and human rights, which culminated in the People's Power revolution in February, 1986 and witnessed the collapse of the Marcos regime, have inspired fellow Asians to regain our rights and dignity as human beings and modern citizens.

Two of the most notable and admirable fruits of the Revolution are the freedom of the media in the Philippines, and the flourishing of ideas, personalities and institutions for the protection of human rights.

Indeed, we Asians, including Malaysians have a great deal to learn and emulate from the brave people of the Philippines, especially the brave and vibrant journalists.

In Malaysia, despite the apparent economic prosperity and seemingly free press, the media is still regulated very oppressively by many laws such as the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984 (PPPA). Under the PPPA, all regular publications, including dailies are required to apply or renew their publishing and printing licences every year, and the decision to grant or withhold the licences is the absolute power of the executive which is unchallengable in any court of law.

The Minister of Home Affairs is the executive who is vested with this absolute powers. The Act also empowers the minister to revoke or suspend or alter the conditions of publishing licences. In 1987, three major newspapers were ordered to stop publication and circulation for about six months on "national security" ground. Recently, another weekly has been ordered to change to bimonthly.

Other laws that retrict the freedom of the media are the Sedition Act (1948), the Internal Security Act (1960) and the many court decisions in civil cases of libel, that have quite "successfully" instilled a psychological condition of fear among journalists, especially senior editors.

Nevertheless, due to the efforts of some brave journalists and editors, as well as the pressure of the accelerating democratic movement, Malaysians have recently witnessed an apparent extending freedom of the press.

This apparent freedom is based on "tolerant despotism", not premised upon the protection or guarantee of modern democratic laws. The state of "tolerant despotism" allows the media to somehow test the limit and to do some good work, including in the areas of reporting and commenting on human rights issues.

Assuming the journalists who are interested in human rights cases are reasonably brave, the problem arises in analysing the stories is, first and foremost, the difficulties of obtaining information from the official sources.

In Malaysia, beside the Official Secrets Act (OSA) which restricts the flow of information from the government to the civil society, there is also the very prevalent culture of fear among government or public servants to communicate with people whom they suspect of "digging into the government". A classic case in point is the refusal of the Information Ministry to issue official press cards to journalists working for a very successful and popular daily in the cyberspace, namely malaysiakini .

And without the official sides of stories, it is very often difficult to present balanced reports. Fair and balanced journalism demands that both the alleged victims and the alleged perpetrators of human rights violations should be given opportunities and space to tell their sides of the "stories". It is my hope that Suhakam would educate public or government servants to be more journalist-friendly, besides endeavouring to advocate for the review and repeal of these oppressive laws.

However, to be fair to the real and genuine situation in Malaysia, I must say that facts and figures of human rights cases that have entered the judicial process and used in court trials are reported quite freely, although some editors would prefer not to highlight them or the main points in the cases. The extensive and detailed coverage of the trials of former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim testifies to this.

Another problem in analysing the stories is, sad to say, the lack of awareness or knowledge, especially legal knowledge on the part of journalists themselves. For many "good" years in the past, many Malaysian journalists had been too comfortable to report or write on the "happy things" like the tallest building or longest bridge in the world, relying mostly on ministerial speeches or government publications. Many have thus neglected self-improvement and the constant urge to acquire knowledge in fields like human rights.

Again, I hope in years to come, Suhakam would cooperate closely with journalists, and to educate us on the many fine points of law, including international law on human rights, so that citations of the relevant laws in specific cases or stories could enhance the credibility of the reports and commentaries.

Packaging and presenting stories on human rights involve the use of language and headlines. Here we encounter an obstacle in a section of the PPPA which stipulates that "alarming news" could constitute a legal offence. And the meaning of "alarming" is not very exactly defined, thus rendering the word very subjective or arbitrary. However, many stories on human rights do come out, albeit not in very prominent pages or with really eye-catching headlines.

The political impediments and legal obstacles confronting the traditional media in Malaysia are rather serious because the laws and restrictions do not seem to apply to cybermedia, making it less obstructive for cybermedia to be brave and interesting. In the process, the laws and regulations are causing the tradition media to lose out its readership and credibility to the cybermedia like malaysiakini .

That the eight-month-old malaysiakini has increased from some 30,000 hits to about 100,000, nearly surpassing some leading traditional media testifies to this fact and trend. It is thus hoped that any review of the press law in Malaysia should take into serious account of the positive challenges posed by the revolution of information technology.

Looking from the perspective of social justice or human rights in the social sphere, the fact that traditional media like newspapers are heavily and oppressively regulated, while the cybermedia is not, is not fair to the many poor and disadvantaged groups in our society which do not have daily or instant access to Internet or computers.

As a Thai journalist has rightly pointed out just now, Malaysia does have many talented reporters and writers, but I submit that the potential of many of these talented men and women is not fully tapped and mobilised because of the legal and political structure that discourages honesty, courage and fairplay.

It is not very accurate for a fellow Malaysian journalist to suggest that Malaysian readers can judge by their purchasing power whether a newspaper is fair or not. It is only right in abstract theory but the reality in Malaysia is still that in the English-language and Bahasa Malaysia media market, there are not many alternatives or options for the readers. The licensing policy and law ensures that the range of choices is rather limited or narrow.

Finally, let me say that journalists are not diplomats or government representatives. We should not be "nationalists" or "patriots" either. We are members of a universal fraternity that has pledged to report factual truths and write reasoned opinions, wherever we are, and whoever our objects of writing or reporting.

JAMES WONG WING ON, a former member of parliament and currently senior writer and columnist in Sin Chew Jit Poh , read political science and economics in Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. The above is a speech delivered at the Regional Symposium on "The State, Civil Society and Media in Asean" held by the Asian Institute for Development Communication in collaboration with the Press Foundation of Asia and Southeast Asia Fund for Institutional and Legal Development on July 5 in Manila.