Let good sense prevail, Urimai says over two dailies' flag gaffes

Summary

• Urimai chairperson P Ramasamy urges all quarters not to jump to conclusions over two Chinese dailies’ mistake in printing the Jalur Gemilang.

• With both dailies having solid track records, he says there is no reason to suspect they would intentionally make such errors.

• Ramasamy also urges the government not to take action that would affect media freedom.

The United for the Rights of Malaysians Party (Urimai) has joined the chorus of voices for good sense to prevail over the Jalur Gemilang fiasco involving two Chinese dailies, Sin Chew Daily and Kwong Wah Yit Poh.

While acknowledging the errors warrants a thorough scrutiny, Urimai chairperson P Ramasamy urged all quarters not to jump to conclusions.

“We must approach this matter with balance and reason. While the error warrants scrutiny and possibly legal review, it’s important not to jump to conclusions or suggest the omission was a deliberate attempt to insult the nation or its leadership.

“It’s difficult to believe that two well-established newspapers with long-standing histories would intentionally exclude such an important symbol,” he said in a statement today.

Under authorities’ scrutiny

Yesterday, the Home Ministry announced that it has launched investigations into the dailies for their gaffe involving the Jalur Gemilang pictures.

It came after Sin Chew carried a front-page illustration of a jong bearing the Malaysian and Chinese flags to coincide with Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to the country.

Kwong Wah published a Facebook post featuring the front page of its upcoming edition, which included a photo of a shopping mall’s electronic billboard displaying the flags of Malaysia and China.

In both cases, the crescent moon was not visible on the Malaysian flag.

Sin Chew has since apologised and blamed the mistake on a “technical error”. It has also corrected the illustration in the digital edition of the copy and republished the corrected version in its print edition, in addition to taking disciplinary action against its staff.

Why punitive measures?

Ramasamy said it was unfortunate that some political voices are calling for punitive action despite apologies made.

The former Penang deputy chief minister reminded the public that the world is increasingly driven by technology, and in such a fast-paced environment, human errors occur.

“What matters most is how these errors are handled. In this case, the mistakes were acknowledged, apologies were made, and corrective actions were taken.

“If the mistake was unintentional, we should move forward by accepting the apologies in good faith.

“There is no benefit in entertaining extreme measures that could undermine press freedom or disrupt the media landscape unnecessarily,” Ramasamy added.

Yesterday, several groups such as Geramm and the Centre for Independent Journalism also urged the government not to use outdated laws Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984 to penalise the dailies.

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