The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) Peninsular Malaysia said journalists wrote accurate reports, but these were edited or sometimes not published at all because of censorship.
“Journalists should not be the focus of readers’ mistrust
“Blaming journalists for causing Malaysian readers’ mistrust is not fair and uncalled for,” it said in a statement today.
The NUJ was responding to the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ) survey on Malaysian media and journalists published recently on FMT.
The survey showed that over half of Malaysians do not trust the news that they read and are of the view that media organisations in the country are not free from “undue political influence”.
Only 22% of Malaysians polled agreed that journalists could be trusted “most of the time” compared with 27% who disagreed and 51% who neither agreed nor disagreed
“The study findings are not anything new; they are more of a reiteration.
“Everybody is already aware of the fact that the political parties or their cronies are the biggest shareholders in mainstream newspapers.
“It is an understatement to say that party-controlled media organisations, such as The Star, Media Prima Group and Utusan Malaysia, are dominating the news.
“However, there are also a number of media organisations that are not controlled by any political parties, but are only lacking in their desired influence on the readers.
“This means that people can still have access to balanced news.”
In the RISJ survey, only 11% of respondents disagreed with the statement that “the news media in Malaysia are independent from undue political or government influence most of the time”.
A significant 51% of Malaysians polled believed that local news media were not free from commercial influence, compared with just 13% who disagreed and 36% who were on the fence.
The study found that 29% of respondents did not trust the editorial independence of media organisations, compared with 27% who did and 44% who had no comment.
“Notwithstanding the findings, the NUJ believes that media freedom still exists in Malaysia, but it is not an absolute freedom.
“There is still room for check and balance and readers are free to choose which (news outlet) they should trust,” said NUJ.