Author: InpressGlobal

Written by Farah Hanani Binti Sukri

The controversial issue that involved Malaysian couple, Azizul Raheem Awalludin and his wife, Shalwati Nurshal, who were arrested in Sweden on 18^th December 2014 because they hit their children for not performing prayers by using cane has been widley discussed in Malaysia at that time.

The Malaysian couple received a prison sentence because they had against the law regarding the child abuse. The Swedish law is not the same as the Malaysia law, but as the media coverage, it might slightly different in terms of style of reporting.

This comparison of news reporting about this issue is to find out on how media portrayed or reported the issue and to understand each of the perspective. This is because this issue related to the difference in legal system in Sweden and it involved Malaysian citizen.

From the analysis, the issue had been reported few times in The Local. The Local’s headline mostly highlighted that the Malaysian Couple found guilty because of their action towards their children.

The Local mentioned “A Malaysian couple with diplomatic passports have spent more than a month in Swedish Jail, after being accused of hitting their children for not performing their prayers. The Parents risk ten years in jail”. Regarding the content of the articles, The Local put much attention to the law. It is because Sweden has different legal system to regulate the matters related to the child and all foreigners that lived in Sweden will be subjected to the same rules and regulation (Sweden Law). It will be difficult because of clash-cultures.

There is no conspiracy or hidden agenda as the issue involve law, it might be difficult to draw the line either Malaysian couple should be released or not. The news content said “The case is not the first time in recent years that political officials from abroad have run afoul of Sweden’s laws outlawing corporal punishment. In September 2011, a visiting Italian politician was convicted by a Swedish court for assaulting his son while on holiday in Stockholm, a case that sparked heated debate in both Italy and Sweden”. This showed that The Local did not criticize or blame the Malaysian couple one hundred percent.

In addition, The Local headline on “Malaysia fury after slap parents are held” reported that the prime minister offered helps to make a press conference, as it could be the best way to defend their parents’ case. It showed that The Local did not hide single information, for example “The case had generated much interest in Malaysia. A Facebook page titled ‘Bring Shal and Family Home’ and lobbying for the parents’ release, has received more than 17,000 likes or clicks of approval”. The statement made is to inform people that the Malaysian really care and concern about the Malaysian couple that had been jailed by the Sweden authority.

As for The Star Online, news portal from Malaysia, the issue also became top highlighted news as it involved Malaysian citizen in Sweden. The Star Online reported the news with the headline “Swedish court finds Malaysian couple guilty of hurting children, metes out jail sentences”, which the news content did not have any biased or propaganda in it. The Star also mentioned that the Judge Moller said “Most of the violence had been inflicted with the hands but a cane and a clothes hanger have been used as well”, which means that the Swedish law does not accept any kind of the aggressive action against children. The Star Online did not criticize the Swedish law but they managed to report the issue to inform people for helping out the Malaysian couple that had been jailed in Sweden.

Written by Nazmi Suraya Ruslan

 

Identity of News Organization: The Star

The Star is the famous local English-language newspaper in Malaysia. Based in Petaling Jaya, it was established in 1971 as a regional newspaper in Penang. As of September 2016, The Star is effectively controlled by the Malaysian government, whose controlled entities hold a majority of the shares in the publicly-listed Star Media Group.

Practicalities and Agenda of the media

The main agenda of The Star that can be observed from the headlines of the news is that they want to highlight that the Hindraf rally is unreasonable and disturbing the public order as the Hindraf were gathering and protesting towards the government as well as defying a court order, forcing the police to use tear gas and water cannons to disperse the crowd. The trouble started at Batu Caves, with demonstrators forcing open the locked gates and breaking temple property at 2am, this shows that Hindraf rally was really dangerous to the public according to the Star.

Identity of News Organization: Reuters

Reuters is an international news agency headquartered in Canary Wharf, London, England, United Kingdom and is a division of Thomson Reuters. Until 2008, the Reuters news agency formed part of an independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data. It was established in 1851

Practicalities and Agenda of the media

Based on the Reuters news reporting, they took the issue of Hindraf rally differently than The Star online as they kept updating and publish follow-up articles from various dimensions. However, it can be seen that Reuters emphasized on the Malaysian perception and opinion of this issue. Their article consists of the opinion of Malaysian citizen and media towards Hindraf rally. For example, one of the articles described that the demonstration happened as an anti-government street protest. News published by the Reuters is always accompanied by sources as the reporters of the Reuters get the information by personally interviewing one of the demonstrators.

Written by Nurhanis Hazry
September 11, 2001 Attacks: New York Times vs Berita Harian

The tragedy of September 11, 2011 was the worst international terrorist attack occurred in the United States. According to The National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), United States terrorists launched attacks in 44 states, as well as Washington, D.C and Puerto Rico in between 1991 and 2000, while the rest of 30 states and Washington, D.C experienced the terrorist attacks after 2001.

New York Times reported that during the tragedy of September 2011, there were four coordinated aircraft hijackings. The hijackers belonged to the al-Qaida terrorist network. They used knives and box-cutters to kill and hurt the passengers and pilots and then seize the hijacked aircraft. They also used the aircraft to destroy preselected targets. The attacks happened on the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001. It killed more than 3000 victims, injured over 6,000 others and caused $10 billion in infrastructure and property damage.

As reported by Berita Harian, more than 3000 victims were killed in these four hijacked attacks. Citizens of 78 countries perished at the World Trade Center (WTC).
For them, September 11 was the most awful tragedy. According to the President of United States, Bush, he said that the war occurred in United States begins with al-Qaida. The war does not end until every wanted terrorist group of global has been found, stopped and defeated.

Miss Universe Malaysia’s Nasi Lemak Dress: BBC News vs New Straits Times

Malaysia has cooked up an unusual outfit for its Miss Universe representative on 2017—a dress depicting its national dish, nasi lemak. Based on BBC News, local pageant organisers unveiled the Miss Universe Malaysia, Samantha Kathie James, 22-year-old model of Chinese-Brazilian, will be donning the dress in the National Costume segment of the Miss Universe 2017 beauty pageant on November 26, at Las Vegas.

New Straits Times, in its report said, Samantha will be competing against 41 other delegates in the 66^th edition of the popular international event in Las Vegas on November, 26. A model since 17, Samantha’s career has seen her living in the United States, Brazil, India and Thailand. She has also featured in commercials and movies in Indonesia and China, recently.

The nasi lemak dress is a creation by local designer, Brian Khoo. Apparently, he took a month to make Samantha’s dress and spent about 400 embroidering rhinestones onto the dress. He also sewn embellishments on the dress—made of ivory silk to represent the coconut rice, depicting with other ingredients. The nasi lemak-inspired costume is so realistic. The dress is white to represent the rice, complemented by ikan bilis, peanuts, cucumber slices, a sunny-side up egg and hand-embroidered rhinestones for sambal.

Written by: Wan Anis Aqilah

Bajet 2018 is a budget allocation for every aspect such as education, country development of Malaysia, government servants’ allowances /bonus, and so many more. These would help the Malaysian citizens in many aspects. The Bajet 2018 was delivered by Prime Minister of Malaysia live in Television. This event is held annually by Prime Minister.

Following the Bajet 2018 presentation, many news agencies reported on the allocation in the Bajet including international media. Thus, this article will compare the news report on the Bajet 2018 between Al Jazeera and Sinar Harian.

Headline

Al Jazeera: “Malaysian PM’s last budget is last shot to win votes”

From the headline above, Al Jazeera did not write positive headline unlike the headline written by local news portals. The statement of “last shot to win votes” was portraying that the Prime Minister (PM) is trying hard to win Malaysians heart for next election.

Sinar Harian:

News 1: “Bajet 2018 tumpu bantu rakyat hadapi kos sara hidup”

Headline in Sinar Harian showed totally the positive of Bajet 2018 and the whole story especially the statement of “Help Malaysian in living cost” also focused on the positive side of the Bajet 2018. Indirectly, it showed that Sinar Harian reporting is taking care the image of PM despite the Bajet 2018 was not that up to the par according to some people..

News 2: “Bajet 2018 Najib hanya untuk meraih undi”

However, in another news article of Bajet 2018 from Sinar Harian entitled as above was slightly negative towards Prime Minister. The headline was quoted from the former Prime Minister; Tun Dr Mathathir Mohamed pertaining to the Election of Malaysia which just 10 months away from the Bajet 2018 was presented.

Body News

Al Jazeera

This news portal reported with transparency of Bajet 2018 by writing a statement – “Prices rose sharply in Malaysia – where household debt is among the highest in Asia” in which that kind of statement will unlikely to be written by local news portal. The statement of “among highest in Asia” portrayed that Malaysia is facing the issue of high living cost. Al Jazeera also added that the high living cost due to subsidies cut and consumption tax (GST) implemented by Prime Minister himself.

In the news article, Al Jazeera reported that “The leader also faces a political challenge from his mentor-turned-foe, former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who called Najib a thief in connection with a scandal at state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). Najib has denied any wrongdoing”. This kind of statement we never see in the local news portal shows that Al Jazeera made fair reporting on the Bajet 2018.

The writing style of Al Jazeera made the article to be much more interesting by quoting a statement from international economist pertaining to the Bajet 2018. Al Jazeera also literally wrote that Bajet 2018 was the last shot of PM to win the votes in the upcoming election by maintain the cash-handout to the low and middle income earners and improving policies to provide affordable housing.

To conclude, Al Jazeera made a fair reporting on the news by taken several statements not only from Prime Minister, but the PM opponent and international economist regarding Bajet 2018.

Sinar Harian

News Article 1 was only a heads up of the upcoming Bajet 2018 presentation by the Prime Minister. The article was quoted from the Najib himself during an event. The body of the news are not totally mentioning about Bajet 2018, but toward the end of the news article, it was about an event that Najib attended at that time. The news article were covered only first few paragraphs.

News Article 2 was about Tun Mahathir Mohamed who did a live video streaming for Parti Bersatu Rakyat Malaysia (Bersatu Party). He claimed that Budget 2018 by Najib just want to win votes in the election that will be held soon. He also clearly claimed that Bajet 2018 as a corruption.

By looking at how Sinar Harian worded their headlines and how they wrote their news stories on this issue, it can be said that they are trying to be unbiased and fair in reporting, not to focus only to government side but as well provided the space for the other side (opposition) to voice out their thought.

Proximity

Al Jazeera:

News article published by Al Jazeera does not affect much on the readers as Al Jazeera is an international news portal. Those who read the news would might have the negative thought of Prime Minister of Malaysia. Also the headline speak it all.

Sinar Harian:

There are two versions of news article written by the Sinar Harian where the first news article was portrayed the good angle of the news while the second news article was portrayed slightly bad about Prime Minister. It can be concluded that Sinar Harian does a fair reporting of Bajet 2018 which not only focusing on Prime Minister and government.

 

Written by: Nur Hawa Shafiqa A Zulkefli

Identity

New Straits Times

The oldest English newspaper in Malaysia traces its roots back to a weekly journal found in 1845. Straits Times have gone through several transformations most significantly, the name amends to New Straits Times and cut back from a broadsheet to a compact version. Its strong conviction for a stable, progressive nation-building brings to its audience a rich editorial content that has gathered huge following of movers and shakers, and key decision makers, paving the way to a united and progressive Malaysia. Today, it has its own online version and the website can be reached at www.nst.com.my.

Today

TODAY is a Singapore English-language digital news provider under MediaCorp Press. It was formerly a national free daily newspaper. TODAY is the first Singapore newspaper to make a full mobile-first transition. September 30 2017 marked the day since its birth as Singapore’s first free commuter newspaper. In that time, it grew to become the country’s second most-read newspaper, winning over readers with its unrivalled package of news reports, locally and internationally as well as insightful, thought-provoking commentary and analysis. Through the website, news app, social media and messaging platforms, the main goal is to deliver the signature brand of concise, balanced reports and commentary to readers, wherever the readers are.

Practicalities

New Straits Times and Today has quite similar in style of reporting. However, Today showed some professionalism in their writing. The article about the issue is compact with information compared to New Straits Times. It is full of ministry’s statements and perceptions regarding Hijab ban issue in Malaysia. Unlike Today, New Straits Times offered readers with limited information about the issue, but the news was continuous.

Both writing were bias. The issue reported in Today addressed more on opposition parties questioning government’s action against the issue while New Straits Times address more on government sides. Both reports were based on individual’s statement but the truth was not guaranteed. Since the report was bias, both presses were not independence in gathering the information. A journalist should not act on behalf of special interests whether political, corporate or cultural. By clarifying the act of banning hijab wearing by Muslim women as Islamophobia showed professionalism amongst Today’s writers. Islamophobia is the term used for an individual who has intense fear or hatred or prejudice towards Islam or Muslims. The word of “anti-Islam” or “anti-Muslim” used in New Straits Times was high-quality but Islamophobia term has created excellent writing.

Media in Singapore practices freedom of expression. Singapore presents itself as liberal democracy where a constitutional right to free speech is given. Thus, the media in Singapore is more open, and transparent. The content of the news is extensively expressed to the readers. Unlike Singapore, freedom of expression is not absolute in Malaysia. The freedom, on the other hand is restricted by other laws. Media ownership in Malaysia also has restricted the freedom. Hence, content in New Straits Times regarding the issue address more on government side.

Written by Nur Maizatul Akhma Binti Ab Latif

Star TV on Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2017, of closed circuit television footage from Monday, Feb 13, 2017, shows a woman, center in white, at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang, Malaysia, who police say was arrested Wednesday in connection with the death of Kim Jong Nam, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Two women, identified as Siti Aisyah and Doan Thi Huong, are the only two people in custody and are charged in Kim Jong Nam’s death. Both worked as escorts and claim they were duped into thinking they were playing a harmless prank for a television show. They face the death penalty if convicted.

A reporter holds up a local newspaper during his report in front of the morgue at Kuala Lumpur General Hospital where Kim Jong Nam’s body is held for autopsy in Malaysia February 18, 2017.

A report by Japanese magazine Nikkei Asian Review also claimed Kim Jong Un had his uncle, Jang Song Thaek, executed after uncovering an alleged coup plot coordinated with the Chinese government.

North Korea refuses to accept Kim Jong Nam as the half-brother of Kim Jong Un and believes a heart attack was the true cause of death. The regime also accused the Malaysian government of working with South Korea and other “hostile forces” to blame them for the assassination.

 

Written by Putera Muhammad

 

The annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation took place in the aftermath of the 2014 Ukrainian revolution. On 22–23 February, Russian President Vladimir Putin convened an all-night meeting with security services chiefs to discuss extrication of deposed President, Viktor Yanukovych, and at the end of that meeting Putin remarked that “we must start working on returning Crimea to Russia.” Russia sent in soldiers on February 27, 2014. Crimea held a referendum. The legitimacy of the referendum has been questioned by the international community on both legal and procedural grounds.

International reactions to the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation have almost always been condemnatory of Russia’s decision to intervene, supportive of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, while also supportive of finding a quick end to the crisis. The United States and the European Union threatened and later enacted sanctions against Russia for its role in the crisis, and urged Russia to withdraw. Russia has accused the United States and the EU of funding and directing the revolution and retaliated to the sanctions by imposing its own.

Malaysia through its Minister of Foreign Affairs views with deep concern the developments in Ukraine, particularly the situation in the Crimean peninsula. Given Malaysia’s friendly relations with Russia and Ukraine, the country urge both to work towards a peaceful resolution of the issues between them. Malaysia also hopes that both sides would adopt a moderate approach and find a mutually acceptable solution. The interest, welfare and security of the people of Ukraine must be given top-most priority while taking into account the implications on the overall stability and peace in the region. Malaysia also supports all peaceful efforts including international diplomatic initiatives aimed at resolving the crisis situation in Ukraine. All parties involved must respect the rule of law, act responsibly and aim towards finding a peaceful settlement

Media portrayals of the Ukrainian crisis, including 2014 unrest and the 2014 Ukrainian revolution following the Euromaidan movement, differed widely between Ukrainian, western and Russian media. The Russian, the Ukrainian, and the Western media were all, to various degrees, accused of propagandizing, and of waging an information war during their coverage of the events. Russian channels were repeatedly criticized for the use of misleading images, false narratives, misrepresentation, suppression, and fabricated news stories, such as a child’s crucifixion and the death of a 10-year-old in shelling. The BBC reported that Russian states television “appears to employ techniques of psychological conditioning designed to excite extreme emotions of aggression and hatred in the viewer”, which according to The Guardian, is part of a coordinated “informational-psychological war operation”.

A regular theme in the Russian media was that the Ukrainian army, which has many Russian-speaking members, was committing “genocide” against Russian-speakers and that they strongly desired Russia to “protect” them against Kiev. This presentation contradicted a poll showing that less than 20% of eastern residents wanted Russia’s protection. They supported Russia’s denials of involvement in the Crimean crisis, until Vladimir Putin boasted about the key role of Russian soldiers, and continue denying its involvement in the war in Donbass, despite evidence that Russia regularly shelled across the border.

Many in the Western media described Ukrainian society as deeply “divided”. Most reported the Euromaidan as a protest movement against corruption and for democracy, with a minority presence of far-right groups, though some suggested that they played the decisive role in armed confrontations. Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych’s accumulation of wealth received coverage. Moscow’s claims of fascism and western conspiracies were often included for balance.

Russian president Vladimir Putin was described variously as a “bully, “imperialist,” and a “brilliant” and skilled leader. As of December 2014, BBC News and Reuters take no position on whether Russia is a party to the armed conflict, saying simply that Russia is “accused” by “Ukraine and its Western allies.” A few days after the OSCE’s Observer Mission wrote that it “continued to observe high numbers of dumper trucks transporting coal from the Luhansk region to the Russian Federation,” Reuters reported on Russia’s offer to sell coal to Ukraine, saying “months of fighting a pro-Russian uprising have disrupted coal supplies” but not mentioning the OSCE’s observations.

In 2015, the BBC and The Guardian continued to portray Odessa and Kharkiv as deeply divided, despite polls showing that supporters of separatism or joining Russia were a small minority. Western media avoided describing anti-Ukrainian foreign fighters as foreigners invading Ukraine, preferring to describe them as “rebels” or “separatists”. The Daily Telegraph described a Russian citizen, who had no connection to Ukraine prior to taking up arms against its government, as a “pro-Russian rebel”.

As a country that has a good relationship with Ukraine and Russia, Malaysian government and media chose not to take any sides and become neutral on the reporting. Many reports are from agency such as Reuters and AFP for instance the reports that was published in The Star and News Straits Times newspaper and online portal during the phase

On a personal view, it is a correct action by Malaysian media to be neutral in reporting the issue to maintain relationship with both country. Media did differentiate between right and wrong at their discretion. Many forms of journalism allow the author to state a certain opinion – like the editorial in a newspaper or magazine. Feature stories also reveal an author’s bias. And, let’s not forget that media are gatekeepers. Editorial offices always filter the news for dissemination. Mainly they filter by relevance. But not only. It is a common practice to keep a low profile on unpleasant topics – readers/viewers preferred not to be disturbed by certain “truths” that don’t fit to their world view.

Written by Amirah Sohaimi

Image Source: Reuters

On 6 December 2017, US President Donald Trump has declared Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and announced plans to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The announcement has indirectly created tensions in the region and has led to a prospect of peace.

CNN reported that Trump has also signed a formal waiver to delay the move from the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem for six months. But the security arm of the State Department is planning a potentially strong protest at US embassies and consulates.

In addition, CNN also stated that the last status of Jerusalem has always been one of the most difficult and sensitive questions in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Over the years, US policy will avoid declaring Jerusalem as the capital city of Israel, as Palestinians also claim that Jerusalem is their capital. The decision of one side will indirectly divide the international consensus and affect the problems that should be left to the negotiations.

Looking back at history, the UN partition plan made in 1947 illustrates Jerusalem as a “separate international city”. But the war following the declaration of Israel’s independence one year later left the city divided. When the battle ended in 1949, the ceasefire border – often called the Green Line as it was drawn green ink – saw Israel control the western half, and Jordan dominated the eastern half, including the famous Old Town.

In Malaysia’s newspaper coverage, it is reported that despite having a close relationship with the US president, Prime Minister Najib Razak also denied Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The New Strait Times reported the event on December 22 where Malaysia joined more than 120 voting states in favor of a UN General Assembly resolution calling for the United States to withdraw its recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, and ignore the threat by Trump to cut financial aid to the voting state against the steps. In addition, Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi also told the local media that next month the Cabinet will discuss Najib’s proposal for Malaysia to follow Turkey in the opening of an embassy in East Jerusalem to recognize the city as the capital of Palestine.

Besides that, The New Strait Times also reported that Malaysia confirms that the issue of Jerusalem is at the core of Palestine’s cause and requested that all United Nations Member States to not recognize any change in the borders prior to 1967, including in relation to Jerusalem. The decision was also a violation of the rights of the Palestinian state of the people, including their right to self-determination, and violations of international law together with the relevant resolutions of the Security Council.

Written by Ahmad Mubin Rasydan

Background of the Issue

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) began as 12-countries partnership to lower both non-tariff and tariff barriers to trade, and establish an investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanism. Its members consist of Australia, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, the United States, Vietnam, Singapore, Brunei, Chile and New Zealand. They represent roughly 40% of the world’s economic output. However, on 23rd January 2017, President Trump signed a Presidential memorandum to withdraw the U.S. from the TPP.

Background of the Media

The Utusan Group was incorporated in 1938 in Singapore as Utusan Melayu Press Limited. Its inaugural newspaper, Utusan Melayu, was launched on May 29, 1939. Today, the Group’s diverse expansion is still synergistic with its traditional core activities. In 1997, the Group made its entry into the world of multimedia with the launched of Utusan Malaysia On-Line, Malaysia’s first online newspaper in full text and visuals. Meanwhile, The Washington Times is an American daily newspaper that covers general interest topics with a particular emphasis on American politics. The paper is published as a broadsheet in Washington D.C. in 1982. The political leanings of The Washington Times are often described as conservative.

Agenda of the Media

Utusan Malaysia and The Washington Times have different ways of reporting this issue. The Washington Times was keen to highlight the liability of TPP by using hard-hitting words in their headlines. The newspaper had opted to use negative words such as ‘abandon’ and ‘mistakes’ to indicate that TPP is a damaging partnership in which the US should not be associated with. In an article titled “Donald Trump keeps campaign promise to abandon Trans-Pacific Partnership”, the newspaper again reported statements by Donald Trump which described the TPP as “bad deal” and “death blow to the American workers”. This was followed up by positive reporting of the termination of the partnership by saying that President Trump was given a round of applause by the union leaders. In another article titled “Donald Trump can learn from Barack Obama’s TPP mistakes”, the newspaper again started off by referring to TPP as “deeply flawed” and “misguided agreement”. These two articles illustrate the agenda of The Washington Times of approving President Trump’s decision to renounce United States’ participation in the TPP. Meanwhile, Utusan Malaysia, being a national newspaper decided to keep their agenda in line with the interest of the nation. Their article titled “TPP masih ada nilai tanpa Amerika Syarikat” (9th November 2017) presented a fairly mild reporting on the current situation of the TPP. There was no sensational phrases or words used for the purpose of the article was to inject back confidence into the market and the economy. The same can be described in another article titled “TPP akan diselamatkan” (10th November 2017) whereby the newspaper quoted the Malaysia Prime Minister, Dato’ Seri Najib Abdul Razak as saying that Malaysia, together with the remaining 10 countries are fully committed in making TPP as a significant economic bloc.

Practicalities of the Media

In terms of the presenting their stories, Utusan Malaysia reported with much more detail as they are accessible to key events and key personnel around this region. The news article often quoted sources from either Prime Minister Dato’ Seri Najib or the Ministry of International Trade and Industry. Besides that, Utusan Malaysia also often presented a more thorough viewpoint from other participating countries to show the inclusiveness of its reporting. On the other hand, The Washington Times have the benefits to include a video of President Trump signing the executive order of United States withdrawal from the TPP. The audio-visual recording of this historic event would increase the impact of the news and increase the attention of the viewers and readers. In addition to that, the newspaper also utilized many hyperlinks to enable the readers to jump to similar topics for further reading. This will make the reader stay on the website for longer periods.

Written by Noor Zahra Zamalik

 Alvin Tan and Vivian Lee who are known as a controversial sex couple have offended the Malaysian Muslims when they posted a lewd picture showing both having breakfast during Ramadhan with a menu of ‘Bak Kut Teh’ depicting a Halal logo and a caption of “Fragrant, Delicious and Appetizing”. Their acts were outrageous and Malaysians critics slammed them for insulting Muslims particularly, during the holy month. Despite the issue, the couple also had shot to fame in 2012 after Tan posted sexually explicit photos of Lee and himself in a blog. As a result, the duo was jointly charged under Subsection 5(1) of Film Censorship Act, Section 4(1)(c) of Sedition Act and Section 298(A)(1) of Penal Code. However, Tan has jumped bail and fled to the United States to apply for asylum status whilst Lee was sentenced to six-month in prison. The couple was reported broke up in 2014.

Credit image; The Star Online

Identity

The Star

The Star is an English language newspaper owned by the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA), the second largest party in the ruling of Barisan Nasional alliance and the largest shareholder for The Star Media Group Berhad. Since MCA and Barisan Nasional are politically aligned, this news portal is considered as one of the pro-government. The Star is among the other newspapers whose license was once withdrawn in Operasi Lalang in 1987 and resumed its publication after five months. However, after its return, it has lost its previous ‘liberal voice’. Its vision includes becoming one of leading media in providing relevant, accurate and distributing reliable information fairly and objectively whilst its mission includes being the voice of people, caring media group who produces innovative products to achieve its readers’ attention and maintain their loyalty.

Credit Image; https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/343173

Malaysiakini

Malaysiakini is an online news portal known as an independent news media or an alternative media that was launched in 1999 and publishes its news in four different languages, English, Malay, Chinese and Tamil which serves non-government owned paid news agency. This news portal is owned by its co-founders and staff with 60% shares whilst 29% shares were invested by Malaysia Development Investment Fund (MDIF). Malaysiakini is mostly concentrated on local events and mainly emphasizes on issues with regards to Malaysian politics. The news agency claims that they achieve independence by providing editors and journalists’ freedom to practice professional and ethical journalism without interference from government, stakeholders or advertisers. The news portal aims to convey the right messages to citizens on current affairs and consistently support good governance, justice, human rights, democracy, and freedom of speech.

Propaganda

With regards to the news reporting, The Star takes this controversy seriously as it keeps updating and does the follow-up of the news articles with many different aspects. It is observed that The Star is trying to convey some important messages about freedom of speech and expression that is allowed in Malaysia with some conditions to be abided as provided in the Federal Constitution under article 10(2)(a). As such, a person may face legal terms if he or she is convicted for unfavorable actions that can cause disharmony, disunity or feelings of enmity, hatred in the country. Apart from that, The Star is seen to be fair and objective in reporting news by covering Lee’s side of her views about freedom of speech and expression but however, regretted Lee’s attitude for her immoral act. On the other side, The Star also emphasizes that her action is unacceptable in the country as Malaysia comprises multi-religions and races whereas everyone deserves to live in harmony and peaceful environment without interfering and disturbing one’s life and privacy.

Based on Malaysiakini articles and news coverage, there are elements of sensationalism in reporting. The news portal is seemed to request fair and equal punishment for people who convicted the similar actions as it published news ‘No Sympathy to Infamous Alvivi’. This news points out the comments from its subscribers amongst the well-known people such as Ridhuan Tee and Zulkifli Noordin whom they claimed had belittled other religions and urged the authority to take legal actions. Thus, the news portal is trying to reach its objective by urging and voicing to the authority not to be biased and applying double standards with regards to laws and regulations through its writings in which attract readers’ attention as well as challenge their thinking and mind toward this matter.

Practicalities

The Star applies development journalism where it updates new photos in each of its articles as well as respects the sensitivity, when it did not share any of the pictures of Tan and Lee’s family member even though they reported about Tan’s mother who visited court regarding her son’s matter. Besides, The Star also uses other sources to update news about the duo through Bernama to keep track and continuously share the progress with their readers. Apart from that The Start is seen to be rational and practical when it published a suggestion from Dr. Hasan Mad from Malay Consultative Council (MCM) that the duo can be sent to the civic rehabilitation center for counseling and guidance instead of sending them to the detention center or a lock-up.

With respect to this case, Malaysiakini is observed to be less up-dated about the news and this can be verified through their news portal. Besides, their news coverage of this case is basically sharing opinions and thoughts from personal perspectives. They also use other sources to update news such as Bernama where it shows that the news portal is inconsistent in updating the news in their news portal.