The collusion between the state and media is a "regression" for the struggle of press freedom in the country, a media activist warned recently.

"In the past, when there is a confrontation between media and the state, all media would join forces against state intervention," said Chang Teck Peng ( left ), the media studies lecturer attached with New Era College.

"But now, there is collusion between political parties and media, reducing any confrontation between them. This is not o­nly a drawback but worsening the scenario."

Chang was speaking at the 'Development and challenges of press freedom in Malaysia' forum organised by the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall Youth Section and human rights NGO Suaram o­n Monday.

MCA takeover

Earlier in his speech, he noted that the collusion between state and media started in the 1960s when ruling coalition Barisan Nasional started to acquire the English and Malay media.

The Chinese media's turn came when o­ne of the two major publishers in the scene, Nanyang Press Holdings, was taken over by ruling coalition member MCA in 2001.

MCA recently divested 55 percent of its shares, giving at least 0.56 percent to media magnate Tiong Hiew King. Tiong, a close associate of MCA president Dr Ling Liong Sik, owns the other major publisher, Pemandangan Sinar Sdn Bhd.

Nanyang Press and Pemandangan Sinar grew into oligopolies when they took over other Chinese tabloids and magazines in the early 1990s.

Chang said civil society members o­nly raised their concerns regarding control, ownership and forming of media conglomerates following the reformasi heyday in 1998 and the MCA takeover of Nanyang Press.

Oriental Daily

Chang cited the problems of the fledgling Oriental Daily News as an example of how media conglomorates and the state have stifled overall media growth.

The Chinese newspaper faced a major stumbling block in reaching potential readers when its established, bigger rivals warned distributors from circulating the new daily.

The newspaper was also slapped with a three-month long suspension o­n the day of its initial launch last October, with no official reason given.

"The consequences of media conglomerates forming became more obvious recently. In Oriental Daily 's case, its rivals sought help from their political sources which willingly gave it as a tradeoff for their future media publicity.

"Thus, the loser is press freedom," he said.

The daily was also pressured by the Home Ministry to drop its op-ed page recently. Chang is o­ne of the writers whose columns have been discarded.

Press freedom, Chang added, is also not just about the number of publications in existence.

"Our government leaders always say they did 'give' us press freedom. They quote the number of publications in the market and cite the existence of opposition media, Harakah , Rocket and others as examples. But this is o­nly talk and the freedom is o­nly superficial.

"There is no certainty that the press is free at all times as control will be exercised during critical times in society. o­n the surface, we appear to enjoy press freedom, but in actual fact, we don't," he stressed.

Air-conditioning democracy

Online daily malaysiakini co-founder and editor-in-chief Steven Gan, who was the other speaker, likened the impact of independent media to that of "air-conditioning".

"Independent media is to democracy what air-conditioning is to a house; when there's no air-conditioning, it gets too hot; when there's no independent media, democracy will evaporate," he said.

He added that the government had monopoly o­n the 'truth' until the emergence of the Internet medium. The government has pledged there would be no control of Internet content in line with the move to create the Multimedia Super Corridor, Malaysia's answer to Silicon Valley.

"Loss of credibilty of the mainstream media and their self-censorship, for instance o­n news of the MCA takeover of Nanyang, also led to readers eargerly searching o­n the Internet for alternative news," he said.

On the new medium, the editor said he was amazed that malaysiakini could survive till today and have made an impact in society.

"Two years ago, we were attacked for allegedly receiving funding from international financier George Soros. Our advertisers were also intimidated by the bad publicity from the government and pulled out their advertising.

We also called traitors by the Prime Minister (Dr Mahathir Mohamad) and our office was raided and computers seized recently," he said.

"Although we are not certain about our survival, what we are certain about is without malaysiakini , it will definitely be a little bit poorer for readers where choices for news are concerned."

Malaysiakini.com's office was raided by the police last month upon a report lodged by Umno Youth over an allegedly seditious letter published by the o­nline news provider.

Fifteen central processing units and four servers were seized. o­nly the servers have yet to be returned.