Journalists ‘frightened off’ from probing sensitive issues, says news veteran

A Kadir Jasin, a former chief editor and government media adviser, said journalists’ reluctance stems from the confusion and ambiguity around offences related to 3R issues.

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia’s decline in the World Press Freedom Index was due to journalists being discouraged from investigating certain issues deemed sensitive, says veteran newsman A Kadir Jasin.

Kadir said the reluctance stems from the confusion and ambiguity surrounding offences related to 3R issues on race, religion and royalty.

“They are frightened (off) from probing these issues,” said Kadir, a former chief editor of the New Straits Times who was appointed to the Prime Minister’s Office as a special advisor on media affairs in 2018.

He told FMT that he felt that those involved with high level communications within government appeared to be “uninformed or were not serious in handling queries”.

Fahmi’s warnings

Saifuddin Abdullah.

Former communications minister Saifuddin Abdullah said another factor that contributed to the drop in ranking was the government’s habit of issuing all kinds of warnings, especially by the minister in charge.

“Take for example the remark that ‘a police car will be in front of your house’,” he said referring to comments by government spokesman and communications minister Fahmi Fadzil in June last year.

Fahmi drew criticism after he made his remark at detractors during a  TikTok live session. He later clarified that the warning was aimed at those who made remarks that touched on 3R matters and not meant for his critics.

Yesterday the World Press Freedom Index report showed that Malaysia’s ranking had declined by 34 places to 107th compared to 73rd last year.

Unfulfilled promises

Both Kadir and Saifuddin also agreed that the government’s failure to enact reforms it had promised in the past had also contributed to the drop.

Kadir said many of the government’s promises remain unfulfilled, and in some cases, the country had moved backwards.

“Our access to communication is among the best but what we can discuss continues to be limited by the laws, which the Pakatan Harapan government promised to abolish or amend but did not.”

Saifuddin said the government was not even able to abolish the Sedition Act, which he described as a “low-hanging fruit”.

In March, the Cabinet agreed to commence the process of amending the controversial act, beginning with engagements with the police.

Fayhsal puts blame on Fahmi

Wan Fayhsal Kamal.

Bersatu Youth chief Wan Ahmad Fayhsal Wan Ahmad Kamal said the score shows that Putrajaya, especially Fahmi, as the government’s spokesman, had been “lying all this while” in terms of the image it was trying to project.

“The report clearly shows that the government is autocratic, despotic and a liar,” he said, attributing the drop in ranking to Fahmi.

“The source of the problems is Fahmi himself because he is pussyfooting around and using the MCMC to intimidate others which has led to the drop in ranking,” Wan Fayhsal said.