Media
Much of the Malaysian media is tied to the ruling UMNO party, with the county's main newspaper owned by the government and political parties in the ruling coalition. Major opposition parties also have their own newspapers. Besides Malay newspapers, there is large circulation of English, Chinese, and Tamil dailies. The media has been blamed for increasing tension between Indonesia and Malaysia, and giving Malaysians a bad image of Indonesians. There is a divide between the media in the two halves of Malaysia. Peninsular-based media gives low priority to news from East Malaysia, and often treats it as a colony of the Peninsular. Internet access is rare outside the main urban centres, and those of the lower classes have less access to non-government news sources.
The regulated freedom of the press has been criticised, and it has been claimed that the government threatens journalists with reduced employment opportunities and denial of family admittance to universities. The Malaysian government has previously tried to crack down on opposition papers before elections when the ruling party was unsure of its political situation. In 2007, a government agency issued a directive to all private television and radio stations to refrain from broadcasting speeches made by opposition leaders, a move condemned by politicians from the opposition Democratic Action Party. Sabah, where only one tabloid is not independent of government control, has the freest press in Malaysia. Legislation such as the Printing Presses and Publications Act has been cited as curtailing freedom of expression. The Malaysian government has large control over the media due to this Act, which stipulates that a media organisation must have the government's permission to operate. However, the "Bill of Guarantee of No Internet Censorship" passed in the 1990s means that internet news is uncensored.
Read more about this topic: Culture Of Malaysia
Famous quotes containing the word media:
“The media transforms the great silence of things into its opposite. Formerly constituting a secret, the real now talks constantly. News reports, information, statistics, and surveys are everywhere.”
—Michel de Certeau (1925–1986)
“Today the discredit of words is very great. Most of the time the media transmit lies. In the face of an intolerable world, words appear to change very little. State power has become congenitally deaf, which is why—but the editorialists forget it—terrorists are reduced to bombs and hijacking.”
—John Berger (b. 1926)
“The media no longer ask those who know something ... to share that knowledge with the public. Instead they ask those who know nothing to represent the ignorance of the public and, in so doing, to legitimate it.”
—Serge Daney (1944–1992)