GUEST BLOGGER: MY FRIDAY CHOICE

WHEN I was growing up in Taiping in the 50's, reading newspapers was rather considered square;
we rather spend time on comics when we were not playing around the neighborhood - Beano, Dandy, Captain Marvel, Classic Comics and Eagle. Dang, I don't remember reaching for school books once the dismissal bell rang. As such you are considered sissy if you cannot come out to play and you are considered a spoilt-sport if you ran home when the street lights come on. I was introduced to the newspapers one Saturday morning. Barefoot, as always, we were deciding what games to play when Kamal fished out something from his pocket. He spread it out before me, my younger brother Mike, Chandra and his brother Kicee, Sonny and his younger bother Boy and Zainal. It was Ester Williams in a swim suit. The paper was Standard, if memory holds good. Nah, we never read....we just looked at pictures. It was only in Form 3 in St. Xavier's that I was introduced to the then Strait Times which unfortunately morphed into The New Crooked Times. But I stopped reading the NST after my buddies like Fauzi Omar, Lazarus Rokk, George Das, Tony Francis STOPPED writing. It is a pity they did not continue writing for the alternative media. However one such former journalist continues and with the usual BITE. Today he is my guest blogger:

ENEMIES OF A FREE PRESS

Editors who condone political smear campaigns

The shameless connivance of the Malaysian media in leading and pushing an anti-Anwar smear campaign of the past weeks has been sickening to read, even if it comes as no surprise after 13 years of steady and enthusiastic anti-Anwar coverage.

Utusan group, Bernama, RTM and TV3, and the Malay Mail’s Rocky and his blogging friends, have only weakened the case for a free press and for independent journalism, by enthusiastically pushing unverified comments by unknown American bloggers. Utusan said one of them was a “prominent blogger”. That is plainly a lie.

What went on was a smear campaign, using all the tools of journalism. It was journalism as a political tool, with journalists seen at their worst, being used to propagate half-truths and outright lies.

My choice is appropriate. With the Selangor Government passing the Freedom of Information Bill and their appointing an opposition UMNO Assemblyman as Chairman of PAC, it augurs well for transparency and accountability. Like somebody said, "Shitcan your KPI, FOI is good enought for us."

Continue reading Uppercaise HERE

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VERITAS VOS LIBERABIT

The Truth Will Set Us Free