YOURSAY 'Is it justified to sink to this depth of morality in order to discredit a perceived opponent to the totalitarian regime?'

Dailies caught giving Aussie senator an anti-Islam spin

your say Anonymous #22481191: It's amazing for New Straits Times (NST) to not realise such a blatant stunt is near impossible to get away in the digital age. Do the NST editors still write with crayons?

I mean, really, who in NST can claim themselves to be serious journalists and keep a straight face? I doubt that even the tabloids would consider the allegations qualifying material.

I hope the Australian senator Nicholas Xenophon wins the suit big, but this is Malaysia, so who knows anymore?

Malaysian Born: This is likely to be a very expensive mistake for all three papers involved in the fabrication.

They must have been set up to take the fall for this but surely their editors' competence is beyond that of an office boy, and at the very least they should have checked the source material.

This kind of mistake does not reflect well on them in terms of intelligence and professionalism, but I guess their owners can afford to pay for their stupidity.

I hope they identify who provided the doctored material. This is really dumb.

Kairos: What NST has done is the lowest of the lows in journalism. There appears to be no scruples left in the editors of this mainstream newspaper.

This is not just fabrication. This is blatant manipulation; lies, deception and character assassination of the highest order, all lumped together.

What kind of a trash newspaper is this that has completely no principles or ethics left in it? Is it justified to sink to this depth of morality in order to discredit a perceived opponent to the totalitarian regime?

If I were working in NST , I wouldn't know where to hide my face.

Cantabrigian: Xenophon, it is a clear-cut case of a fabricated lie to defame your credibility.

We Malaysians pray hard that you will sue NST and Media Prima to the bone because we are no longer able to swallow their concocted stories as truth.

Irresponsible journalism should be penalised severely.

ABU Member: Xenophon, sue NST if you think they doctored your speech. The Malaysian media has been doing this for ages and spreading lies about the opposition, especially its leader Anwar Ibrahim.

We hope you can help us stop the doctored news and cultivate the culture of reporting news without fear or favour.

SKT: Sue NST ? This Australian senator can best forget it. He would just learn that our judiciary is even much dirtier than the police who tear gassed him and the mainstream media that slandered him.

KitaAkanSiasat: An example should be made of NST so that other government-linked press would be on their toes on what was reported.

But the multimillion ringgit question is how can this be achieved when these media organisations are backed by the corrupt government and its compromised judicial system.

I hope when Pakatan Rakyat takes government, these organisations' licences would be frozen or at least ensure their top management/decision-making team is fired wholesale.

FairMind: Our Malaysian media has gotten away with unprofessional and unethical reporting and even lies with Malaysians. They think that they can use the same old tricks with an international audience, but it won't work.

Censorship remains despite press law changes

Ben-ghazi : If you watch the BBC news clip that was censored by Astro, you would wonder why the needed to snip off the Indian man's interview.

He was not insulting the Agong, Prime Minister Najib Razak or Information Minister Rais Yatim; he was merely telling us why he attended the Bersih 3.0 rally.

What he said was nothing new, and it was the same reason why all the other 249,999 protestors attended the rally. So Astro better come up with a better explanation of why they took such drastic action.

Wira: The Malaysian mainstream media have gone beyond censorship. They create stories to the benefit of the ruling party.

Jedi_Who: Najib wanted to make his mark in history but he had no political strength. So he came up with this idea to be the ‘father of transformation'.

He sold it to the public even if it was merely a marketing-branding exercise and an illusion. Why? It had worked well before under the devious former PM, Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

That's what Najib's reform bills are. Repackaging and rebranding the illusion of change. Najib is not in touch with reality and that makes him more dangerous.

Seeking Justice: The Najib government has never been sincere in press freedom or reforms. All the so-called reforms (ISA, PPPA, Peaceful Assembly Act, etc) are just half-baked.

There has never been true democracy in Malaysia. So we see what has happened with Astro censoring BBC and Al Jazeera reports.

As long as the Umno-BN regime still governs the country, there will not be true democracy and press freedom.

Kairos: It is not fortuitous that so soon after the police debacle at Bersih 3.0 that the world celebrates World Press Freedom Day. It is open knowledge that nobody in middle Malaysia believes in the news dished out by our controlled mainstream media.

That's why so many turn to the alternative media for the real news and comments. Given what happened to the press during the Bersih rally, this is a day to remember that press freedom in Malaysia is a myth.

A prominent judge in England once declared, "Heaven has eyes" in his judgement. Could it be that heaven is judging this government on its high-handedness and control of the media on this auspicious day?

Bumiasli: "Freedom of expression is one of our most precious rights. It underpins every other freedom and provides a foundation for human dignity."

In Malaysia, we are deprived of our dignity not only in lack of freedom of expression, but also in terms of democracy being not practised though preached.

There has been absolutely no democracy in Malaysia for the past 30-odd years. The word "Merdeka" which ‘Bapa Malaysia' Tunku Abdul Rahman excitedly shouted on Aug 31, 1957 and thereafter, has lost its meaning.

Today all that remains is hypocrisy, lies and corruption. Is this the same Malaysia that I was born in?

Zhang Yinbin: In present-day Malaysia, progress or change means one step forward but two steps back.

 

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