How Sibu-owned dailies cover the by-election

The Sibu Election Watchers (SEW) Media Monitoring Group has named Chinese daily Sin Chew Daily as top on the list of local newspapers studied for their fairness in the coverage of the Sibu by-election.

It, however, cautions that all the news outlets in general are “pro-Barisan Nasional”.

Monitoring only four of the most widely-circulated dailies in Sibu, the study ranked, from most balanced coverage to least: Sin Chew Daily , United Daily , See Hua Daily and Borneo Post .

“For See Hua Daily and Borneo Post , the news coverage in terms of average number of news items favours BN over Pakatan Rakyat by a notable margin,” said the group.

The watchdog also noticed that, in their three-day observation period from May 10-12, the See Hua Daily gave more coverage to Pakatan only on the first day, after which it reverted to favourable reports on the BN.

Tied to media ownership

“The ranking can perhaps be explained by the relative closeness of the interests of the paper owners to the Sibu by-election. Both Borneo Post and See Hua Daily are owned by the KTS Group, which is owned by the family of SUPP/BN candidate Robert Lau Hui Yew,” said the group.

They also attributed to the difference in coverage between the two KTS Group-owned publications to stiff competition among Chinese vernacular newspapers in Sibu.

Market forces, they believe, have motivated the papers to attempt appearing “balanced” to its readers.

Of the two, the English daily Borneo Post has the smallest market share of readership.

“For United Daily and Sin Chew Daily , while also aligned to SUPP, their owners are not directly involved in the election campaign and therefore can assume a more balanced ... coverage of the election,” they said.

Owned by Sibu tycoons

Both Sin Chew Daily and United Daily are owned by giant Sibu-based conglomerates Rimbunan Hijau and Shin Yang respectively.

“Their common political ties to the ruling coalition explain their common bias in favour of BN,” said the group.

The watchdog concluded their report with a call on the Election Commission to at least reprimand the media operators involved for failure to provide balanced and fair coverage so that voters can make informed decisions at the polls.    

Sibu voters will cast their ballots tomorrow in a three-cornered fight among SUPP’s Robert Lau Hui Yew, DAP’s Wong Ho Leng and independent candidate Narawi Haron.