NUJ president: Free the press or face chaos

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Using the media to play up racial and religious issues for short term political gain may turn Malaysia into a conflict-torn nation, fears Hata Wahari, the newly-elected National Union of Journalists (NUJ) president.

We applaud the firm stand made by the new NUJ president, and would like to urge Hata to stand up firmly against the massive media manipulation currently being instigated by Umno. As the result of all these negative elements, the traditional mainstream medias now are very much tainted and full of message and reports that promote racism and hatred.

Besides, imbalance and unjust reporting by these traditional mainstream medias are also resulting to the drastic increase public distrust on journalists at large. When the growing public distrust on this medias widen, the sales of newspapers would drop, as the NUJ president had feared earlier.

Hata was correct on his fear, for the sake and welfare of all journalists nationwide. If the federal government and the Barisan Nasional (BN), particularly Umno continue to manipulate these medias for their own political interests and gains, the people would one day disregard the traditional press for a more open and correct information available in many online news portals.

Therefore, if the sales of all those newspapers drop, many journalists would eventually lose their hard earned jobs. And if this chaos happens, blame Umno.

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