Though many may not be aware, World Press Freedom Day (WPFD) was recently celebrated on May 3. The theme chosen for this year’s edition is “21st Century Media: New Frontiers, New Barriers”. While it may pass off to many as just another one of those days that has to be celebrated, it hits nearer to home for most journalists around the world.
It is a day that not only honours the essential principles of press freedom, but to appreciate the media and journalists for going the extra in order to seek out the truth which they know should be known to the public.
WPFD also serves as an occasion to remind the government to respect press freedom and to allow the media to do their job fairly by disseminating information to the nation. Not only that, it is also an opportunity to let people know that violations of press freedom are still taking place in today’s world.
On this day, we pay tribute to journalists who are detained, harassed or even killed during the course of their career as they tried their mighty best to disclose facts that the public ought to know. And it doesn’t stop there. Licenses have been revoked, publications have been shut down and fined, and offices have been torn apart.
One would perhaps ask: on what basis do such actions take place? Is it wrong for the media and journalists to play their role in informing the citizens of the latest happenings in the country?
It would be wrong to think that some news should be ignored and swept under the carpet just because it might damage the reputation of some prominent individual in society or even a politician. The existence of the media and journalists would be of no use if such things were practiced.
Speaking about press freedom here in Malaysia, it isn’t something that any of us would be proud of. In the latest World Press Freedom Index that was released last year, Malaysia was ranked 141 out of 178 countries with a score of 50.75.
This represented a drop in rankings as we previously occupied the 131st spot in year 2009. However, the decline in rankings was unsurprising to many given the fact that the media environment in Malaysia has remained unchanged for quite some time.
What’s more worrying is that our country has been stuck in the bottom third almost without fail for the past 10 years. The Reporters Without Borders website has even labeled Malaysia as a “difficult situation”.
The state of media freedom is further highlighted with restrictive laws such as the Printing Presses and Publications Act (PPPA), Sedition Act, Defamation Act, Internal Security Act (ISA) and Official Secrets Act (OSA).
Meanwhile, the Communications and Multimedia Act (1998) is used against those who utilise the Internet as a platform to distribute information that the government deems as seditious and harmful to the nation.
If Malaysia intends to create a media environment that promotes freedom of expression and freedom of information, then there certainly has to be significant changes.
The government, for one, has to loosen their stranglehold when it comes to press freedom and allow the media and journalists to go about their jobs, which is to serve the public by providing them with the relevant amount of information and not hiding the truth from them.
(By Marie Erin)
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