Barely a week ago the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) and the Malay language daily Utusan Malaysia crossed swords over matters concerning management of the newspaper.

NONE Today the newly-elected NUJ president, Hata Wahari, raised concerns over the drop in the newspaper's circulation from 2005 to 2009 due to "policies that are against ethical journalism practice".

The circulation of Utusan Malaysia had decreased from 213,000 to 169,000 or 21 percent in the four years. according to a report by the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) on Sept 10.

"NUJ is of the opinion that the fall in Utusan Malaysia 's circulation should be attributed to several factors and these are normally affected by the policies set by the chief editor and senior editors," said Hata in a statement today.

He outlined four main policies that were the reasons for the decrease, which involves biased reporting.

nuj new president hata wahari " Utusan Malaysia runs positive reports if it involves the BN government and negative reports about Pakatan Rakyat and its state governments.

"It does not give an opportunity for the those involved to respond and even if he or she does, the responses are not published in the newspaper," said Hata.

According to him, the newspaper enforces a policy to not print rebuttals made by political parties or individuals in response to negative reports on them.

Hata gave as an example the statement from Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz in reply to the daily's Sunday edition Mingguan Malaysia columnist 'Awang Selamat', condemning the former.

He added that the newspaper also only reported on issues that fulfil the needs of one race and sidelined issues related to the Chinese and Indians, as well as other bumiputeras.

"This is the reason... no one else is interested in reading the newspaper although they are literate in Bahasa Malaysia," he blasted.

As a newspaper that is printed in the national language it should accommodate all races, he opined.

‘Free online news killing newspaper circulation'

Another factor that is killing the interest of newspaper readers is the fact that news can be read online on Utusan Malaysia's website, he said.

"Awang had expressed the view that the tremendous growth in websites and social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter has ‘aggravated' the situation," he said.

Hata added that the columnist also attributed the reason for Utusan Malaysia's fall in circulation as due to readers having switched to populist, sensational and light reading material as opposed to serious reporting.

NONE "The increase in the online readership does not contribute a high income to Utusan ... which depends only on advertising revenues," said Hata.

He appealed to the senior editors to dump non-profitable policies which would lead to a further decrease in circulation if continued.

"It is not impossible for Utusan Malaysia to suffer the same fate as Utusan Melayu (which is printed in Jawi script) - now a pullout in the Sunday edition.

"One day Utusan Malaysia will turn into a pullout in Kosmo (a Malay language tabloid also published by Utusan Melayu (Malaysia) Berhad), as the tabloid's circulation increases every year," he predicted.