The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion
The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion |
| Every press has its agenda on MH370 Posted: 27 Mar 2014 03:19 PM PDT
As a journalist, you must always have a certain perspective or context for the stories and issues you are working on or there really won't be any point. There's a British journalism rule that goes a little something like "One dead Brit overseas is worth 100 dead people anywhere else", or something like that. What it really means is that if you're working for the Malaysian press, then your stories will always have to be pursued from a Malaysian perspective. And if you're working for the British press, then it will always have to be pursued from a British perspective. Simple enough, I would think. Covering the story of the missing flight MH370 in Perth, Australia, along with dozens of other media worldwide, it really showed me this perspective. Since the incident, a lot of the international press, especially the Chinese, seem critical of the Malaysian authorities and the way they have been handling the situation. This caused many Malaysians to go on the defensive and start taking offence by what the press outside has been reporting. There's nothing wrong with that, of course. But just understand this is how it works and that there is also nothing wrong with what they are doing. Take, for instance, the night when our prime minister made a statement saying that all data in hand showed that flight MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean. The Malaysian press immediately reported condolences and went into a period of mourning, which is only to be expected. The Australian press reacted differently. When the Australian defence minister gave a press conference the next day, he was asked by Australian journalists if he agreed with the Malaysian PM. Why? Because the objects that the Australians had found have yet to be confirmed as wreckage from flight MH370 and it is the Australian taxpayers funding the search in this area. So when the Chinese press pressures the Malaysian authorities, it is only because it is serving the interests of the people at home who demand answers. It's the same as during press conferences with the Australian rescue pilots and government officials in Perth, I would always ask questions that I think Malaysians would want to know. I would ask if information is regularly passed on to the Malaysian authorities, are Malaysian personnel working closely with the Australian authorities, and so on and so forth. Then, there is the Japanese press in Perth mainly because its government has sent two aircraft to assist in the search and rescue operations. You get it… Its questions are more Japanese-centric. At the end of the day, everyone involved in the story will tell it from a certain point of view. So what I'm saying is that everyone has the right to freedom of speech and expression. – March 28, 2014. |
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