The Death Of Journalism In Malaysia
Shrinking And Fragmented Industry Challenged By New Regime Of Censorship
Murray Hunter
The Malaysian media landscape dramatically changed when Premesh Chandran and Steven Gan, both seasoned journalists created Malaysiakini back in 1999. Malaysiakini was one of the first ever online news portals that successfully delivered paywall journalism. This is a model emulated across the world today.
Malaysiakini was a start-up enabled by a ‘black swan event’ in Malaysia, where censorship was suddenly and unexpectedly lifted on the internet by then prime minister Mahathir Mohamed, in an attempt to ensure the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) would attract foreign investors.
Chandran and Gan were not the only Malaysians to pioneer journalism. M.G.G. Pillai was a Malaysian journalist, who worked as a Reuters correspondent in Vietnam during the war, and often freelanced for the now defunct Far Eastern Economic Review (FEER). M.G.G. Pillai was one of the founding journalist proprietors of Asiaweek, an internationally respected magazine during its time. M.G.G. Pillai also created Malaysia’s first online news portal, pioneering independent journalism, with mggpillai.com, back in the mid-1990s.
Since then, a number of Malaysian journalists have excelled within the international legacy media with companies like Al Jazeera and CNN.
Sine the 1990s, journalism in Malaysia had its ups and downs. Sites like the Malaysian Insider played a key role in exposing the 1MDB scandal, but were forced to close down for their intrepid efforts back in 2015. Journalism has not been the same since. Being an investigative and/or political journalist could easily land you into incarceration due to the draconian Internal Security Act (ISA), which has fortunately been repealed.
There were great hopes in 2018, that journalism and the press would become almost totally unhindered with the Pakatan Harapan (PH) win in 2018. Anwar Ibrahim’s appointment as prime minister in 2022, came with the belief that journalism in Malaysia would finally be able to become free without draconian tools suppressing the freedom of the press.
The expected journalistic renaissance became a reformation
In November 2022, things looked bright for journalism. Fahmi Fadzil, a then self-professed libertarian from the film & TV industry became the minister for communication. Expectations were high until Fahmi made comments on a TIK TOK session, that if you criticise him or the government, expect a ‘radio car waiting outside your home.”
This became the death knell of any high expectations by media portal owners and journalists. Since this statement, real journalism in Malaysia has been shut down very tightly.
The recent news of journalists at both The Malaysian Insight and The Vibes has given attention to the plight of journalists in the country. As a professional occupation, journalists are poorly paid to the point where journalists themselves are looking for better alternatives, such as PR managerial positions in private corporations.
As such, jobs outside journalism don’t expose people to the threats and intimidation journalism in Malaysia does. Civil and criminal defamation, sedition, breaches of the Official Secrets Act (OSA), intimidation, and attacks on journalists’ reputations are all tools used against journalists to prevent unfavourable reporting. Most often a corporation uses these laws to impose SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) proceedings on journalists to silence them and even push them into bankruptcy. Such lawfare strategies are prohibited in many other countries.
The latest weapon the government has rolled out is the taboo about any commentary relating to the 3Rs (race, religion, and Royalty). However, the 3Rs is very selectively used against critics of the government, where supporters are not investigated or prosecuted.
The above has destroyed the ability of most journalists domiciled inside Malaysia to carry on any real investigative journalism.
For these reasons, journalism is not considered a safe occupation to pursue as a career anymore. Journalists receive relatively low salaries with very few opportunities for any upward mobility in media organizations, especially the online news portals. This forces journalists to write PR, puff pieces, advertorials to please their superiors and supplement incomes.
The Madani Media Strategy (MMS) developed by the communication minister Fahmi Fadzil has affected the news media industry extensively. Excessive overt and covert censorship has ruined any chances of news and media organizations to remain objective in their reporting. Self-censorship is now widely practised by editorial staff to ensure their respective organizations don’t displease the government. This is now beginning to effect readerships and revenue sources, where Malaysians are now relying much more upon social media for their news and opinion. Many online news portals are downsizing and struggling to achieve revenue above their operating expenses because of this.
Radzi Razak, a spokesperson for the Gerakan Media Merdeka (GERAMM) said that more than 71 journalists have been made redundant since February, while two online news portals have closed ceased operations. More than have a dozen online journalists have been blocked by order of the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) for reporting unfavourably about the government.
The government comes to the rescue
The government has taken advantage of the situation and is offering selected news portals funding. However, this is conditional and comes at great cost to editorial independence. The MCMC stipulates what the news portal can and can’t report on, and who they will allow to write columns. This is no longer content based, but aimed at eliminating the voice of journalists the government doesn’t like. There are several reports that members of the police Special Branch have infiltrated many of the larger news portals in the country.
As a result, more news portals now follow the government narratives and have become repetitive of each other. In addition, news portals now run Bernama, the official government news agency, and ministerial press releases for content than previously.
In Malaysia, even the new Journalists’ Code of Ethics has been written by the government, without industry feedback and contribution. Journalist organizations were never consulted. Thus, the ministry of communication is beginning to resemble a ministry of propaganda, suppressing any alternative views to the narratives it wants the public to read. This is at the cost of attracting new young journalists, who are now looking for alternative careers in either NGOs or corporations as PR and CSR executives. The best now go overseas to work with international media groups.
This is all at great loss to the media industry in Malaysia.
The above description is not yet fully reflected in the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) annual Press Freedom Index, where the cutoff for the 2024 ranking was December 31, 2023. Malaysia in the 2025 Index (measured until December 31, 2024) would be expected to take a further dive from the current 107th position, when the above facts are taken into consideration. In the 2024 index, Malaysia fell from 73rd place to 107.
The Malaysian media landscape in 2025 will be expected to have fewer online news portals actively operating. There will be an industry shakeout. There is already a drastic shortage of professional journalists, where what positions are left will be occupied people who are no more than by presstitutes, who are willing to fulfil their superiors’ editorial wishes. Those news portals remaining will on the most part be struggling to survive and keep their operations afloat. The skills of professional journalism in Malaysia are very quickly being lost.
Originally published in Eurasia Review 4th October 2024
