Newspapers of political parties were important to present their views to members and the public and thus freedom of the press must include the right to be partisan, a media forum heard today.

"It is not the business of the government to decide what we should write or publish. The people are the ones who should evaluate whether a party's perspective and decisions on certain issues are practical and rational," said Berita Keadilan editor Khalid Jaafar.

Khalid was among five panellists who spoke on the definition of media independence at a forum organised by the Centre of Independent Journalism (CIJ) in Kuala Lumpur this morning.

The forum, co-organised by the Bar Council's Human Rights Committee, was held in conjunction with the relaunch of saksi.com, an independent online news magazine. The portal, a project of CIJ, has been dormant for a year.

The other speakers were saksi.com editor Eddin Khoo, Sisters in Islam board member Noraini Othman, Northern Arizona University assistant professor Sheila Nair and malaysiakini editor Steven Gan.

Failed institutions

Khalid said that the main obstacle faced by the media, especially partisan publications, was the requirement of a publishing permit under the Publications and Printing Presses Act.

"You don't have freedom of the press when you have to apply for prior permission to publish through a permit.

"It is alright if the licence required is for the purpose of registration of the company but it should not be used to control the publication," he said.

Khalid added that it was also equally important for party organs to practice freedom of the press within the party itself.

"The party's publication should not be rigidly doctrinaire. The first recipe of failure of any party organ is to just stick to its own issues and statements. Party organs have to be relevant to society in order to survive and compete with market forces," he said.

Noraini, who is also a research fellow and associate professor at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia's Institute of Malaysian and International Studies (Ikmas), said that the diversity of views and reporting styles were equally important.

"For the sake of society and the younger generation, media practitioners should try to find an intelligent way in circumstancing certain issues.

"The media plays an important role as a vehicle for education and public knowledge," she said. adding that the root of media independence lay within the working ethics and attitude of media practitioners in resolving challenges and constraints faced by the industry.

"The universities and the media are two institutions that have failed in modern Malaysia. They have been practising within very high constraints," said Norani.

Gov't monopoly

Gan, who spoke on web-based publications, said the Internet revolution was in its infancy and the survival of online media in Malaysia was a major challenge.

"It is not certain we are going to be successful. We will be facing more challenges such as financial constraints and whether the government plans to go back on its no-Net-censorship pledge."

He added that the Internet revolution is not going to mature for another few years and online media must find ways to survive until then.

"Internet websites such as malaysiakini , agendadaily , saksi and radiqradio cannot, and must not, fail," Gan said.

"If we fail, it will represent a blow not only to press freedom in Malaysia, but also the idea that the Internet can help break the government's monopoly on truth."

Meanwhile, Khoo told the audience that saksi.com will strive to deal with various issues in different fields as openly as possible.

"We want to explore the arts, history and cultural issues as well as encourage stylistic and creative writing," he said.

The website made its debut in October 1998 following the events that took place with the sacking of former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim.

The relaunched website promises contributions from several established writers including Indonesian journalist Goenawan Mohamad and British writer Tariq Ali.