Inaugural National Press Club Media Run. Media practioners and friends of the media who like to run, the NPC in collaboration with the Persatuan Wartawan Wanita Malaysia (Pertama) will hold the first NPC Media Run on Nov 22, 2009. That's this Sunday.
The 5km run is not to raise funds or an excuse to party. We want to foster a brother-sisterhood in the media, old and new.
Call Muharyani Othman at 0122859647 or Aftar Singh at 0162453839 for details. Last day to register 20 Nov, 2009.
IF you think your media are not free, read journo-blogger Op-Ed's article Media - Ethiopia, Sudan, Haiti then Singapore.
Excerpts:These are the main points if you want to write about Singapore.If you are not against media freedom, read the rest of the article, H E R E.
1) The government allows to write anything. But if it sees you straying into rumours and syiok sendiri political stories, it will not stand still.
It will be very vigorous in trying to get its response across.
Don't lose in court, baby. Don't.
If, to take a Malaysian example, you put out a story about the government being corrupt, or PM Najib Razak being involved with some murder (as some websites and blogs did), then expect a strong response. Unless you have court prove-able proof.
(And don't run and hide away like a royal coward after making scurrilous allegations about murder against the PM! Unless of course, they don't have any proof in the first place, just syiok sendiri writings).
The reason for staying true is simple: Singapore does not want some untrue stuff, or some things presented as 'facts' which it thinks are unfairly inaccurate, to be spread in the public domain forever and ever.
It will sue if necessary.
Be prepared to defend yourself vigorously.
As Minister Shanmugam says:
"Our approach on press reporting is simple: The press can criticise us, our policies. We do not seek to proscribe that.
"But we demand the right of response, to be published in the journal that published the original article. We do not accept that they can decide whether to publish our response. That irks the press no end."
In Malaysia, taking the example further, if a politician were to sue over some nonsense article, then a rumour will be accepted as fact, instead of the opposite.
When Anwar Ibrahim sued the writer of the book '50 Dalil' (50 Reasons Why Anwar Cannot Become PM), people actually started to say: 'There you are, the book contains truths, so he wants to shut up the publisher and writer. Otherwise, why sue?'
If PM Najib or Dr Mahathir Mohamad were to sue some website or newspaper over something, people will cry about 'media freedom being restricted'.
'They are scared of the truth lah! Vote them out!'
Lim Kit Siang will ask for a commission of inquiry.
Tara Singh 1917-2009. The journalism fraternity has lost a doyen in Tara Singh (pic) who passed away in his sleep on Wednesday at the Univer-siti Malaya Medical Centre. Tara, 93, contributed to a Chinese newspaper before he retired from journalism. He came to be called Tan Ah Seng by his colleagues and was also an editor at Nanyang Press Group’s New Life Post until a few months ago.
He is survived by his wife of 54 years, Hardial Kaur, 78, who described her husband as a jovial man and a fighter to the end. “His best asset was his sense of humour. He was a nice man,” she said when met at their one-storey home in Section 8 here.
Tara was admitted to hospital for fever, diarrhoea and stomach pains on Sept 21 and recovered several days ago. Despite being weakened, Tara ignored the doctor’s orders and decided he wanted to move around and be active.
A friend and former New Straits Times journalist Philip Mathews said one of Tara’s best efforts as a journalist was writing a series of article on the infamous Pudu prison about 15 years ago. Another unique event of Tara’s life was when he was invited by Tan Sri T. H. Tan, the MCA secretary-general during the Alliance years, to help edit the party’s newsletter, in 1952.
Tara was the only non-Chinese to be made an MCA member when the party’s first president Tun Tan Cheng Lock did not object. Tara was cremated at 4pm yesterday at the Shah Alam crematorium in Section 21. Prayers will be held at the Gurdwara Sahib on Lorong Utara (B) on Oct 22 from 5pm to 7pm.
Article courtesy of copyofthis.com
Blogger sued by Anna Nicole's mom sent to jail
By MARY FLOOD
HOUSTON CHRONICLEAug. 22, 2009, 9:34AM
A second blogger being sued by the mother of the late Anna Nicole Smith is set to spend a weekend behind bars for failing to do what a local judge asked.
Teresa Stephens, accused in a civil lawsuit of defaming Smith's mother, was arrested Thursday in the Fort Worth area and is due in Harris County court Monday morning.
A judge will ask Stephens, whose blogging name is Butterfly according to the lawsuit, to show why she should not be found in contempt for failing to follow court orders to turn over her computer and to appear in court to explain why she didn't do so.
Neil McCabe, attorney for Virgie Arthur, said his client was defamed by these bloggers and others, but that the jailings aren't about blogging.
“This is because a couple of people have defied court orders,” McCabe said. “The case is not really about people blogging. It's about people ginning up a couple stories and getting them in the mainstream media.”
McCabe said the gossip was vicious and it was around the time of custody hearings for Smith's infant daughter, Dannielynn, who could inherit an $88 million fortune. Smith died in 2007.
Arthur also sued lawyer Howard K. Stern; Stern's sister; Dannielynn's father, Larry Birkhead; TMZ Productions Inc.; TMZ's Harvey Levin; and others.
Similar cases
In May, Lyndal Harrington, a local real estate agent and blogger, was jailed for contempt of court by state District Judge Tony Lindsay, the same judge Stephens will face. In Harrington's case, the judge did not believe Harrington lost her computer in a home burglary.
Lindsay released Harrington after she spent a holiday weekend in the Harris County Jail. Harrington, who has said she has no computer to turn over, could risk further sanctions.
Stephens and Harrington are both accused of moderating defamatory discussions about Arthur on a Web site called Rose Speaks.
And both Stephens and Harrington have denied they defamed or harmed Arthur.
Earlier this month, Lindsay issued an order to have Stephens arrested and brought to court. Lindsay allowed for a $3,000 bond, conditioned on Stephens bringing her computer to court.
Stephens does not have a lawyer and has tried to appeal Lindsay's ruling without success yet.
It is highly unusual for a judge to use civil laws to place someone, especially a non-lawyer, in jail.
Groups that monitor Internet law say bloggers are increasingly being sued for defamation, copyright infringement and privacy invasion. One group offers insurance against these lawsuits.
Dave Heller, of the New York City-based Media Law Resource Center, said many bloggers are surprised to be sued “for the loose, hyperbolic language often used in private speech that they post on a public platform.”
Arthur's case is scheduled for trial in 2010.
To see original article, click here.
By the way, Oon Yeoh, by the way, gave the PM a B+ for his first 100 days. Read the book review by The Malay Mail here.
- Freedom or doom? The title of this blogpost, The media under Najib, is also the title of the article I wrote for Oon Yeoh in his latest book, Najib's 100 Days, launched last Thursday at the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall in KL. The book is a collection of 14 essays by Zaid Ibrahim, Kee Thuan Chye, and Malik Imtiaz, among others.Tunku Aziz, who founded Transparency International before jumping on the political bandwagon in the wake of the March 2008 general election, launched the book.
- "I don't think much of Najib," the Senator from DAP said, thus setting the tone for the panel discussion that followed the launch. The panelists were V. Gayatry, Chin Huat, Tricia Yeoh, Ibrahim Sufian, Bridget Welsh and I (who all wrote for the book) and YB Jeff Ooi (who did not contribute any article because Oon Yeoh hadn't wanted any elected people's rep to be involved). Compared with the other panelists, as one member of the audience pointed out, I sounded the most optimistic about prospects under Najib's premiership.
- Guilty as charged.
- Each panelist was given 10 minutes to say his/her piece. I attempted to compare Najib not just with the two other PMs I've dealt with in my 25 years as a journalist - Dr M and Pak Lah - but also with the deputy prime ministers since 1981 - Musa Hitam, Ghafar Baba, Anwar Ibrahim and Muhyidin Yasin.
- Under Anwar Ibrahim, for example, the media tzars were his (instead of Dr Mahathir's) loyalists (with the exception, perhaps, of A. Kadir Jasin, who was linked more to Daim Zainuddin, probably the only non-PM/DPM who'd enjoyed a tight grip of the media). Under Anwar's watch, too, several top editors of Umno-owned media groups and their executives became very rich as a result of multi-billion ringgit corporate moves.
- I told the audience that if Dr Mahathir had entrusted his deputies to take care of the media, it wasn't the case with Pak Lah, who left the running of the media entirely to a couple of individuals and the 4th Floor. During his first 100 days, Pak Lah had sacked the Group Editor-in-chief of the New Straits Times Press and replaced him with a close friend.
- The media"scape" under Najib has changed tremendously from the 80s and 90s. When Dr M was PM, there was only the "old" media. When Pak Lah took over, he rejected the "new" media. Najib has to give latitude to both old and new media.
- I pointed out that there is almost absolute Press Freedom as far as the New Media is concerned, as Najib understands the concept (Gayathry disagreed, she said Press Freedom should be measured in totality: old and new media)
- Najib's statement a week or so ago to assure us that the Government will not censor the Internet (he was responding to Rais Yatim's statement that the ministry was considering a filter to check cyber porn) is proof that the PM is going to honor Dr M's promise to the world that Malaysia would not ever censor the Internet (Tricia, however, thought that it was all staged, that Rais and Najib were playing the good cop, bad cop game).
- I said I was confident that under Najib's watch we witness the abolition of such archaic regulations as the PPPA, which among other things requires newspapers to renew their publishing licences annually.
- Najib had better do that because if Tunku Aziz's prophecy plays out (he had said that Najib could be the last Umno PM of Malaysia), the media will be worse off under the next Government, I said.
- Why?
- Just look at DAP's Penang, where the mainstream media are barred from covering official functions. Under the current Anwar Ibrahim, suing the media has become a norm. The latest is his RM100 million suit he filed against Utusan.
Spin and Anti-Semitism. Blogger AsH, who's based in the UK for now, shares with us her view on "the modus operandi of journalists and writers as they diminish and demolish someone's achievement and character, especially someone who does not sing from their hymn book".Excerpts:
"I am not writing this to champion and defend Dr Mahathir Mohamad, a former PM of Malaysia ... (but) When it comes to anti-Semitism no one can hold a candle to JS's Motherland's hero : Sir Winston Churchill.
"Dr Mahathir, President Mugabe, President Ahmedinejad - eat your heart out. In the accusations made against you for rabid anti-Semitism you have been outclassed by Sir Winston Churchill."
| Najib's bid to put aide on Petronas board hits snag | ||
| Directors say PM's nominee had defaulted on scholarship; Petronas adviser Mahathir says 'not good idea' | ||
| By Leslie Lopez, Senior Regional Correspondent | ||
Mr Omar worked briefly with Petronas, a tenure the oil firm says was not enough to meet his scholarship obligations. | ||
According to senior government officials, the board of directors of Petroliam Nasional (Petronas) raised reservations over the proposal to appoint
Mr Omar Mustapha at its monthly meeting last month.
Mr Omar is one of the premier's closest political confidants.
The reservations were made on the grounds that he had defaulted on his scholarship loan agreement with Petronas two decades ago.
Datuk Seri Najib, however, is determined to have Mr Omar appointed as a director. He ordered the Petronas board to review its position over the appointment at a meeting this week, the government officials said.
Petronas officials have declined comment, and Mr Omar could not be reached.
Tun Dr Mahathir, who government officials said has been briefed about the situation, told The Straits Times yesterday that it was Mr Najib's prerogative as Premier to 'appoint a man who failed to honour his obligation to Petronas when he was given a scholarship by it'.
'Generally, I would say that it is not a good thing to appoint such a person,' he said in a written response.
Mr Najib's office did not respond to requests for comments.
Petronas, Malaysia's only company on the Fortune 500 listing of the world's most profitable companies, is considered to be the country's most efficiently managed state-owned corporation.
Incorporated in August 1974, the corporation has firmly established itself as a global energy player over the last two decades. It currently operates in over 30 countries, and its overseas operations, including exports, account for more than 75 per cent of its revenue.
Many oil industry experts and bankers credit the oil company's phenomenal growth to the government's hands-off approach to the running of the oil corporation.
Mr Omar, 38, has emerged as one of the closest political confidants of Mr Najib and is often tapped for advice on economic and financial matters.
'A politician in Petronas may have other agenda which may or may not be in keeping with the national interest,' Dr Mahathir said in his comments to The Straits Times.
He added: 'I think it is far better if no politician is allowed to interfere with commercial decisions which may not be good for the corporation.'
Positions on the board of Petronas and its subsidiary companies have traditionally been reserved for very senior civil servants and prominent private sector personalities.
Mr Omar graduated from Oxford on a scholarship from Petronas in the mid-1990s and worked briefly with the national oil corporation and another government-linked corporation.
He then joined McKinsey & Co, where he worked for the international consulting company in London and Malaysia.
He left McKinsey in early 2002 to set up his own consultancy firm called Ethos with several close friends. Two years later, he was tapped by Mr Najib, who was then the deputy prime minister, to become his special officer.
Government officials familiar with Mr Omar's proposed appointment to the board of Petronas said that the national oil corporation takes a firm view against scholarship defaulters.
Mr Omar did not complete the required number of years of service with the oil corporation or a related government agency as stipulated in his scholarship agreement.
