Journalists should place greater emphasis on telling the truth and not be too concerned about 'popularity', said Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

"If we place much importance on popularity, there might be adverse effects to society. That's why we cannot put too much emphasis on our popularity but should place more importance on [telling] the truth in reporting," said the premier.

Mahathir said this in his speech at the Malaysian Press Awards 2001 held at the Putra World Trade Centre. The annual event organised by the Malaysian Press Institute was held to honour local journalists and press photographers for their work.

The prime minister also took a swipe at the American media over their unhealthy practice of paying large sums of money to notorious criminals to get their stories.

"They are willing to pay millions of dollars to a notorious criminal to get his biography," he said, adding that apparently a lot of people want to know the minds of serial murderers and other criminals.

According to Mahathir, a similar trend is also occurring in Malaysia where a 'criminal' is invited to give speeches and dispense of his opinions and advice to society.

Though he never stated whom he was referring to, it was quite obvious that he was hinting at controversial businessman Soh Chee Wen who returned to Malaysia after three years of evading the law.

Soh left the country in 1999 after he was charged with two offences in connection to defrauding a now defunct stockbroking firm of more than RM500 million. A warrant of arrest was later issued.

Currently on bail, Soh was invited to speak at a dinner organised by the National Press Club. It is widely speculated that his return was related to the 'leadership succession' crisis in MCA.

"I consider this unhealthy. We have the freedom to report but if we misuse the freedom and turn a criminal into a hero, maybe he would affect certain members of the society, for example the youth. They will think that one of the ways to become famous is to commit crime," said Mahathir.

Press freedom

The premier also asserted that Malaysia does have press freedom, contrary to claims made by some foreign leaders that the Malaysian press is controlled by the government

He cited as example, foreign publications such as the International Herald Tribune that have been allowed to operate in Malaysia 'without restriction' for years.

While there are press supportive of the government, the premier said, there are also those that are not.

"In fact, such press made up awful stories about the government. There are also those which berated the government in Malaysia," he said, without elaborating.

"If we really control the press, then we will not have such newspapers which always criticise, disagree with and create lies about the government."

The premier added that even the so-called pro-government press also sometimes published reports which displeased the government.

He insisted that there is no such thing as absolute press freedom; all press are under some form of control.

The press that is not controlled by the government is controlled by others, for example, powerful editors, advertisers and owners, he explained.

"If we say that press freedom is absolute, that is not true," Mahathir said.

Press awards

In last night's event, Utusan Melayu journalist, Kamarulzaman Mohamad, snatched the coveted Kajai award for his article on the Sipadan hostage crisis entitled 'Penculikan di Pulau Sipadan, Sabah'.

The outstanding journalist award went to Errol Oh Boon Peng from Malaysian Business for his piece, 'E-commerce: Making net gains'.

The Star 's, Philip Golingai won the best news/feature prize (English) for his article, 'Into the lion's lair' also on the Sipadan crisis.

The best news/ feature prize (Bahasa Melayu) went to Berita Harian 's Karim Sulaiman for his article, 'Masalah pekebun kecil getah' on the plight of rubber smallholders.

For the Chinese language category, the prize went to Nanyang Siang Pau 's Tan Yoke Nai for her 'Ecstacy — murder of life feature while the Tamil language prize was bestowed upon Makkal Osai 's Vijayaahveeran Doraisamy for his article ' Makkal Osai dalam tahun 2000'.

Awards were also given for, among others, best coverage on economic and finance news, sports, entertainment, telecommunications and photography.