COMMENT This week has truly been a bad week for journalists, and for me personally.

Two Australian journalists who tried asking Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak to answer on the “millions in his account” were arrested, my good friend from Bernama M Santhiran suddenly passed away early last Saturday and our rival The Malaysian Insider , from which I know most of the journalists as they were formerly New Straits Times staff, closed down.

Not to mention The Rakyat Post also closed down, but has resumed operating on the Facebook site. What else could go wrong this year?

Personally, for me, the incident involving Najib is truly shameful for Malaysia.

Najib has not answered satisfactorily to questions in Parliament on the millions, or billions of ringgit, in his personal bank accounts. He has not answered the questions raised consistently on whether it was a "donor" or "donors" in an interview with TV3.

And our PM has yet to answer it in court, despite the various suits filed, but he never will to queries from The Wall Street Journal and Sarawak Report .

Now, Najib has avoided replying questions on this from local and as well as from foreign journalists - most recently, from an Australian TV reporter .

For those who are unfamiliar, journalists from Malaysiakini or other news portal like TMI and The Malay Mail Online are prohibited from functions in the Prime Minister’s Department and also from Umno supreme council meetings. We are also barred from the Home Ministry and the Defence Ministry.

The latest I heard is that Malaysiakini is also barred from attending the functions of Housing, Local Government and Urban Well-being Minister Abdul Rahman Dahlan.

Najib hardly holds a press conference in Kuala Lumpur these days. He holds them outside the capital, namely in his parliamentary constituency of Pekan. Some of his schedules are not officially listed. It is difficult to ambush him, or as the local term "jolok" goes, like what some local and what the Australian journalists did in Sarawak.

So, are we only to see Najib speak through his speeches and organised and controlled press conferences only?

One would also notice that Najib seldom occupies the first or second slot in prime news on Umno-controlled Media Prima. Is it because his appearance would result in people changing to other channel?

I remember former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad was always willing to answer any question thrown to him, be it by local or foreign journalists. No question was too difficult for Mahathir to tackle.

However, I guess this is not so for our world famous Bugis warrior! His security detail closely guards him from journalists by pushing aside newspeople asking questions and running investigations under Section 186 of the Penal Code for "obstruction of a public officer".

Personally, I hope the situation improves and Najib will answer the hard questions, not only to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission but also to journalists, for we are the fourth estate.

Loss of a good friend

Santhiran, a fellow Johorean, passed away suddenly early last Saturday morning in New Dehli, where he was the Bernama correspondent.

He did his internship with Harian Metro or Berita Harian , joined The Sun and later the national news agency, Bernama .

Prior to his posting in New Delhi on Feb 1 last year, he was a court reporter, and prior to that, a crime reporter.

As we covered court cases, from small cases to big, Santhiran ( photo ) was always there to provide a good conversation. One of the conversations we had was not to let journalists be pushed around.

He was passionate about journalism, despite family commitments. Yes, journalists also have families, for we are not Clark Kent or Peter Parker.

I remember the time when we covered the Anwar Ibrahim Sodomy II trial, coming early in the morning, lining up, writing down our names, going through the security checks by the police, and lining up to go into the courtroom. We shared jokes on the difficult moments of going through this.

We normally exchange notes, discussing what is a better introduction to the story or the news angle.

I last met Santhiran just before Deepavali in November, at the Kuala Lumpur court complex as he returned from New Delhi to spend time with his family and catch up with court reporters and colleagues in profession.

He told me that he had managed to arrange an interview with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was to visit Malaysia later that month and how excited he was with it. However, I understand that the interview was put off.

For journalists, a scoop is an exclusive report, and that is where someone makes his mark. I attended Santhiran's funeral yesterday, seeing a lot of close friends, lawyers, elected representatives and court reporters who knew him well.

It was certainly sad to see a good friend go, but as journalists, we should continue to keep the flame burning and doing our job to inform the public.

Need for independent media

This brings me to the issue of TMI closing down, which is a shock to the media but brings things to perspective that news, or for that matter independent news, can never be free in our country.

Certainly, news comes at a price, not only for the print media but also for the online media, which has to maintain its servers running and pay its staff.

Malaysiakini may have had a healthy rivalry with TMI, but the announcement on Monday by its chief editor Jahabar Sadiq came as a surprise.

As journalists, we have made sacrifices, sometimes above our family and safety, to deliver the news. I remember my time from working with the New Straits Times .

The first front page I got was the story of the construction of the second Karak tunnel, where I saw first hand, from inside, the process of constructing the tunnel as dynamites were being placed.

In journalism, sometimes it is not the many bylines or names that drive the journalists, but it is to deliver the news as it is. This is what keeps our adrenaline going.

May true journalism, freedom of speech and expression and a free media prevail in Malaysia!

HAFIZ YATIM is a member of the Malaysiakini team.