Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi cautioned Malaysians abroad, including students, ‘not to be easily influenced by what is being written in blogs about the political development back home’.
According to a Bernama report, Zahid pointed out that many of the blogs ‘were mere allegations’.
He added that reading the blogs out of curiosity without checking them against the mainstream media ‘could poison the mind as many of the contents were not based on facts’.
Students and other Malaysians abroad were advised to ‘balance things out’ by reading the websites of the mainstream media such as Bernama and Utusan Malaysia which practise ‘ethical writing’.
Perhaps the honourable minister has been reading too much of the mainstream media to the extent that his thinking becomes flawed.
While one could argue that there are elements of distortion or exaggeration in certain blogs, one also cannot deny the fact that there are many blogs and websites that do try to disseminate latest information and news based on facts that are accessible to them.
That said, Malaysians abroad should heed the ‘advice’ of the minister, i.e. compare the reporting and analyses between the mainstream media on the one hand and blogs and news portals on the other.
A case in point, as I have highlighted in this blog, is the reporting of the Parti Keadilan Rakyat’s recent press conference where private investigator P. Balasubramaniam’s first Statutory Declaration (SD) was revealed. The online versions of the mainstream English and Malay press, with the exception of The Star, merely dragged their feet until late in the day when they covered the press conference of deputy prime minister Najib who made a response to the SD.
In contrast, many blogs and news portals were the first to report the event.
Furthermore, by making such a crass comparison between the mainstream media and the new media, the minister has actually painted an impression that all of the mainstream media practise ‘ethical writing’, which is really questionable judging from their professional conduct in recent past.
Anyway, I am sure overseas readers can make up their own minds when it comes to making a critical assessment of Malaysia’s mainstream media and the new media. In fact, these Malaysians have an added advantage in that they also can compare the local media, both mainstream and new, with the foreign media that report matters on Malaysia.
