After taking up the voluntary separation scheme (VSS), a group of Utusan Melayu journalists has rallied together to set up a news portal called bebasnews.my.

Utusan Group former assistant editor-in-chief Zaini Hassan, who is also one of the founders of the portal, said the idea of the portal was first mooted after he received various suggestions on optimising the talents of former Utusan journalists whose services might no longer be needed after they were offered the VSS.

According to him, most of the journalists had served Utusan for a long time and have extensive experience in the field.

For the time being, Zaini said the portal, which was launched last Saturday, has 22 contributors whose main focus were on analysis reports.

"For a start, this will be a news portal where our contributors will comment on news which has been reported by the mainstream media.

"In this way, we do not have to go out to cover news like the other media. They (contributors) are free to work online from anywhere," he told Bernama yesterday.

In addition, he said bebasnews.my will carry national news on politics, the economy, as well as foreign news, in both Malay and English languages.

Meanwhile, Zaini said bebasnews.my is an independent news portal, not funded by anyone and not tied to any political party.

“In fact, every writing sent to the portal is made on a volunteery basis and we do not pay the contributors.

“Alhamdulillah, we have received an overwhelming response, though we have just started on Saturday,” he said.

-- Bernama