Malaysian Media Bias

With the general elections right around the corner, The Star, Malaysia's most popular English daily, is throwing it's support behind its owners. While I've always been of the opinion that no media source is unbiased, that doesn't negate the fact that our media should put effort into being as unbiased as it can be, covering a variety of perspectives for the benefit of their readers. The Star generally does alright, though a pro-establishment slant is always obvious, but this Sunday, it shows that it's owner still projects its influence on the paper. Here's a quick snapshot of the political pieces featured in The Sunday Star on April 15th, 2012:

Transformation will blow state back to Barisan, says Najib

Chua: Chinese community must think carefully before voting

National MCA leaders on a blitz in Perak

Mahathir: Opposition will not form strong coalition

Rude Pakatan leaders chided

My intention isn't to shame the government for its continued control over the mainstream media. We should all be aware that there are plenty of online media sources that display pro-opposition biases. The Malaysian Insider and Malaysiakini display slants often more extreme than their mainstream counterparts. My intention is to urge the media to improve their coverage so that we don't have to look across multiple sources for fair coverage of current sentiments.

It would be nice if the political parties relinquished financial interest and political influence in media companies (i.e. Media Prima, The Star, Utusan Group, Nanyang Siang Pau) to further the cause of free and fair media. I have nothing against politically charged media sources. There is a place in society for The Harakah, The Rocket, Suara Keadilan and even Barisan Nasional newsletters, however, the greater the distinction between politically backed media sources and independent news organizations, the better. If Barisan Nasional wants to disseminate its ideology to the people, it should do so via official party newsletters and abandon influencing national newspapers and television programs in its favor. It already has RTM television and radio as well as Bernama News Agency. The public could do with a little less government control here.

The same must be said of online news portals. It would be nice to see The Malaysian Insider and Malaysiakini present more diverse views, but while we can demand our political parties to remove themselves from media organizations, by our power to vote them into and out of government at the ballot box, it proves more challenging to influence news organizations to remove themselves from political affiliation and hire more diverse spectra of journalists for news coverage.