Tag: assault

MAS STEWARD SEXUALLY ASSAULTED FRENCH WOMAN

Written by Fatin Amalina

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Image credit: FMT.com Image source

After the heart-breaking stories of two Malaysia Airlines (MAS) flight, MH370 and MH 17, again the world has been shocked by the same flight brand only on a different case, the controversial news regarding on sexual assault by Malaysia Airlines’ steward towards its passenger. The occurrence was reported in August 2014 which was a month after the tragic incident of the airlines’ flight.

What had made the incident look a lot bitter, the assault was carried out during the Chief Steward of MAS, Mohammed Rosli Bin Ab Karim performing his formalities. He was then detained by the police officers in France after allegations of sexual assault to one of the MH20 passengers, Laura Bushney on August 4th 2014. According to Bushney, the steward was trying to ‘calm and comfort’ as she was expressing how worried she was being on the plane in conjunction with the incidents that took place between MH370 and MH17. At the end, the action then allegedly turned into a sexual assault. Bushney made a police report about the ‘inappropriate sexual behaviour’. MAS terminated Mohd Rosli two weeks after the alleged incident on August 25th, 2014, and MAS came to admit of the following indictment, Mohammed Rosli was misbehaving against her. According to Astro Awani, MAS affirmed that:

… Malaysia Airlines has always expect the best standard of our staff and we also take seriously the claims of its kind. We will assist the French authorities to investigate (Tamboo, 2014).

However, two years after the occurrence, Bushney sued the carrier under the Montreal Convention for RM616, 000 while Mohammed Rosli was guaranteed in France and is still awaiting trial. Bushney has two years to get compensation based on the physical harm suffered and financial loss, according to Montreal Convention.

The fact that the incident took place between two different countries is obvious to show how drastically contrast the media coverage is.  Now, let’s have a little glance on how the story was being covered between a Malaysian media, Astro Awani and an International media, Daily Mail.

Fairness

Based on what was seen by Astro Awani coverage, it was crystal clear that they were playing with ‘picking side’ style of reporting. This can be proven when Astro Awani for a numerous times revealed the name and personal data of the sexual assault victim, Laura Bushney.

The offender (Mohammed Rosli) on the other hand, not even a single name was mentioned throughout the entire coverage. This plainly shows that Astro Awani was not being ethically fair to both parties of the case because when someone’s name is revealed, in fact, it technically endangers the person’s position too. However, both names were revealed according to the coverage made by Daily Mail.

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Table 1: the table shows certain info and taken a passage from the article that was reported by Astro Awani which shows a different standard given by them towards Bushney and Mohammed Rosli where only the victim’s name and information was revealed.

Propaganda

One of the things that many news agencies always fail to ‘keep an eye’ onto is to prevent from any sense of a ‘hoop-la’. Why? Because audience loves it when seasoning and flavour are added to the stories.

On November, 15 2014, Astro Awani posted a news article entitled ‘Keluarga bekas pramugara MAS didakwa lakukan serangan seksual rayu bantuan’ shows more sympathy for Mohammed Rosli where they interviewed his daughter and son in law.

…“Kami semua merindui sangat bapa kami dan tidak tahu apa lagi yang boleh kami lakukan… “Kami hanya berharap kepada mana-mana pihak yang boleh membantu kami untuk membawa balik bapa kami,” tambah Mohamad Faiq (son in law)… “Surat tersebut mengatakan bahawa MAS memberinya 60 hari untuk memfailkan rayuan terhadap keputusan itu sedangkan mereka sedia maklum bahawa bapa kami sedang dalam tahanan di Paris dan tidak berada dalam Malaysia… “MAS tidak memberikan bantuan kepada kami untuk menjejaki bapa kami. MAS meninggalkan kami dalam keadaan serba tidak tahu dan ini amat mengecewakan dan menyedihkan kami sekeluarga,” tambahnya. “Dia (bapa) telah kehilangan berat badan. Dia kelihatan sakit dan tertekan. Dia menghadapi masalah berkaitan pemakanan dan mengalami stres selain tekanan darah tinggi… “Paling menyedihkan adalah pada hari terakhir kerana kami tidak dapat berjanji kepadanya bila dia boleh pulang,”  kongsi Syaza yang tidak dapat menahan kesedihan… (Syafique Shuib, 2014).

Apart from that, Astro Awani also posted a news article which reported that Bushney had been deprecated on social media. Together with the news, Astro Awani attached few tweets that were posted by the netizens that disagreed with the entire issue of sexual assault and thought that Bushney was actually playing victim.

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From the tweets, what can we digest from Astro Awani is that they had shown less professionalism in news reporting. At this point, what can we question is; are these propagandas purposely implanted so that their news would sell?

 At the end of everything, we can never deny the fact that communication is the most significant part for every organisational operation as it not only functioning in connecting and interacting within the organisation itself, hence also enables people to communicate world-widely. With the existence of communication, automatically it enables ones to be reached borderless. However, the same thing also goes to media, where communication becomes a connector with one country to another. Hence to every company that sells communication like Astro Awani and Daily Mail, what they need to be aware of is that communication is actually representing who they are. For example, if they are practising and promoting good communication, it shall be a direct image of the company viewed positively among others.

Nevertheless, after a thorough glance of this issue, what can be summarised is that both of local and international news media agencies have their strengths and weaknesses moreover on the way of reporting. Local news are more to exaggerating the news to make it bombastic while international news are straight forward on the issue that they want to report even they if practice freedom of media. However, it is clear that Astro Awani is still in poor communication when it comes to reporting news to its audience.

 

Bibliography

Malaysiakini. (2015, December 11). 3,000 rape cases in Malaysia every year. Retrieved from Malaysiakini.com: http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/322980

Syafique Shuib. (2014, November 15). Keluarga bekas pramugara MAS didakwa lakukan serangan seksual rayu bantuan. Retrieved from Astro Awani`: http://www.astroawani.com/berita-malaysia/keluarga-bekas-pramugara-mas-didakwa-lakukan-serangan-seksual-rayu-bantuan-48465

Tamboo, L. T. (2014, August 14). Pramugara MAS ditahan polis Perancis kerana didakwa lakukan serangan seksual. Retrieved from Astro Awani: http://www.astroawani.com/berita-malaysia/pramugara-mas-ditahan-polis-perancis-kerana-didakwa-lakukan-serangan-seksual-41909

Anwar Ibrahim’s Sodomy II

Written by Najiha Zainal

The media industry in Malaysia is blooming and effectively spreading without us realising it. In Malaysia, people depend on the media especially the online media to obtain and disseminate information. The traditional media is still being used but lesser compared to the new media which is the Internet. The new media, the Internet, is dominating the people’s daily lives and it has been so important to the people. There are pros and cons of the traditional media and the new media. The traditional media is reliable but seems to be biased towards the ruling government and not being transparent to the public whereas the new media is free from interference of the government where the public can express what they feel as long as they still follow the rules and regulations but the credibility of sources is questionable. Another thing that matters is the differences of the style of reporting from the local media and international media. However, it depends on a person’s point of view of which media that they prefer. In Anwar Ibrahim’s case, The Star Online and BBC News are the chosen media to compare on the style of reporting.

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Image Credit: straitstimes.com Image Source

The Anwar Ibrahim’s case has contributed to a controversy in the year 2008. On 26th June 2008, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was involved in carnal intercourse by inserting his penis into Mohd Saiful Bukhari bin Azlan anus in Desa Damansara Condominium, Bukit Damansara. This was the second charge of sodomy case. There are so many propagandas that have been published by the local as well as the international news sources. The case of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s sodomy has being highlighted both within the local and also the international media. The case has caused sparks and the politician received criticism and expression of concern from the international media. Some of the politicians in overseas commented that this case has jeopardized the Malaysia status as an Islamic country. On the other hand, in the local news source, there were so many comments regarding this sodomy case. There were conflicts against the opposition and the government political leaders about this case. The opposition political leaders accuse by stating that this was the government agenda to bring Anwar down whereas the government denied and they said the sodomy case was supported by the evidences.

Here is the chronology of Anwar Ibrahim Sodomy II case:-

  • 2008 – Anwar’s former aide, Mohamad Saiful Bukhari Azlan, 23, made a police report alleging that he had sodomized him at a condominium in Damansara. The report was made, two days after the alleged incident.
  • 2012 – In early 2012, Anwar was initially found not guilty by the high court after the judge ruled DNA evidence had been tampered with.
  • 2014 – The prosecution filed an appeal, and in March 2014, the court of appeal overturned the acquittal. Anwar was sentenced to five years jail but freed pending appeal.
  • 2015 – Malaysia’s highest court upheld the conviction against Anwar, giving him a five-year jail term. Chief Justice Arifin Zakaria dismissed Anwar’s challenge against last year’s conviction for sodomizing a young male aide, saying the court found overwhelming evidence of the crime
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Image Credit: Says.com Image Source
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Image Credit: Raiseyourvoice Image Source

In a conclusion, the style of reporting is an important factor to attract the reader to read the news. Despite of whether they are from international or local news, they need to be professional and practice ‘check and balance’ concept. The style of reporting that has been used by the media is one of the ways to persuade the readers to believe what they need to believe. The reporters play their major and ultimate parts in making their news fantastic and interesting to read. At the same time, they have to capture the readers’ attention so that the readers will agree with whatever the media is reporting. Propaganda is so powerful that can make the people recognize the specific political leader or party. Therefore, it is not a surprise when propaganda is used to support the statements that have been made by the respective political leaders whether from the government or the opposition party.

References

ABC News. (2015, February 10). ABC News. Retrieved from Anwar Ibrahim:A timeline of Political Turmoil: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-02-10/anwar-ibrahim/6083644

BBC News . (2008, July 18). BBC News. Retrieved 2016, from Malaysian Anwar in ‘Sodomy Alibi’: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7513963.stm

BBC News. (2010, February 3). BBC News. Retrieved November 3, 2016, from Anwar ibrahim Sodomy Trial Begins in Malaysia: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8495000.stm

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