New chief promises a renewed journalists’ union
By Shazwan Mustafa Kamal, The Malaysian Insider
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 2 — While not quite a veteran unionist, Hata Wahari reminisces a lot about the glory days of when being part of a union actually meant something.
Going back to the 1980s, the Utusan Malaysia journalist said that the thing that he missed the most was the ability to safeguard journalistic ethics, where protests were as much a part of his life as was writing articles.
“The union has not only been inactive for some time but we have been too quiet to the point where people think that we no longer exist,” explained the new National National Union of Journalists (NUJ) Malaysia president.
His bylines might be few in the Umno-owned newspaper but the 41-year-old journalist has been hitting the headlines in other dailies and news portals for being critical of Utusan’s direction lately.
Hata (picture) told The Malaysian Insider in an exclusive interview that as the union’s new chief, he wanted to ensure that the 48-year old union for Malaysian journalists remained relevant and reignited its push for its liberalisation of the mainstream media agenda.
“People today do not realise this, but we in the union have always dedicated ourselves to freedom of expression and pushing for the freedom of the press. There have been two main principles in the NUJ – upholding press freedom and taking care of the welfare of journalists.
“The problem affecting the union is that it has placed too much importance on bread and butter issues concerning the welfare of journalists over press freedom. This should not be the case. Under the new leadership, we want to change this,” said Hata.
His recent election as the new NUJ chief has not been without controversy.
The veteran journalist, who has been an Utusan Malaysia reporter since 1995, made his first impression as union president by attacking his own company for practicing “unethical” editorial policies.
He claimed that the Umno-owned daily’s existing policies, which only reserved positive reporting for Barisan Nasional (BN) had resulted in a sharp decline in the paper’s circulation in recent years.
“Ever since a political party took over Utusan in 1961, it has never been the same. The daily has since then reported news for the interests of political parties,” said Hata.
He said that the NUJ would push for Umno to release its hold on the Malay daily by “floating” its shares so that ordinary people can own the shares of the newspaper.
