iReport —
On July 9, 2011 an anti-government rally held by a mixed race of Malaysians including Chinese, Indians, and Malays took to the streets in Kuala Lumpur. The rally highlighted the opposition’s growing strength since the 2008 general elections where it won 37% of the parliamentary seats. The current administration under Prime Minister Najib Razak seems to be fighting back through a series of propaganda instituted through their media outlets.
Many media outlets in Malaysia are either directly owned by the government of Malaysia or owned by component parties of the Barisan Nasional coalition government called United Malays National Organisation, which is a right-wing Malay political party.
Many of these outlets focused on describing the anti-government rally as “illegal” or concentrating how the police officers acted professionally with minimum force. These propaganda machines include Bernama, The Star, The Sun, and New Strait Times.
Bernama headlines include: “Illegal Rally: Don’t Be Fooled By It!” and “Ilegal Rally Was To Serve Opposition’s Agenda.”
The Star headlines include: “Najib: Cops acted professionally during rallies” and “Street demonstrations not part of Malaysian culture, says PM.”
The Sun headlines include: “Najib: Anwar is mastermind behind rally” and “Rally organizers have no respect for King’s advice: Home Minister.”
New Strait Times headlines include: “Anwar, the mastermind behind illegal assembly, desperate to be PM” and “Good job, PM tells Police.”
Many of these so-called news organizations failed to report how the police shot tear gas into a hospital while chasing protestors with their water cannon or the multiple Malaysian anti-government rallies taking place overseas including: neighboring Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, and the United States.
Regardless what these newspapers report, the rally has achieved both national and international awareness towards Malaysia. The multicultural Malaysian citizens want to be represented within their democracy with their right to vote fair and clean.
Hugo Black who was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States between 1937 and 1971 stated “Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government.” The effect on the pro-government newspapers in Malaysia diminishes as the younger generation rely more on social media and online news sites for alternative forms of information.
Posted in: iCNN
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