Many questions are still "left unanswered":http://jeffooi.blogspot.com/2003_05_04_jeffooi_archive.html#94019060 over the usefulness and practicality of the Joint Media Team Malaysia (JMTM) who returned from their assignments in Iraq recently.
But politicians being sharks, they can smell blood in the water. Whenever a suitable, "feel-good opportunity presents itself":http://www.emedia.com.my/Current_News/NST/Friday/National/20030509074758/Article/, you can almost be sure that the Government will do their best to take advantage of it, regardless of the "cost to the taxpayers":http://jeffooi.blogspot.com/2003_05_04_jeffooi_archive.html#93957073.
But, think about it: do we really need a "Malaysian version of Al-Jazeera":http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/topstories/story/0,4386,188163,00.html? Presenting the other side of the story is always a good thing; considering how mainstream global press is often one-dimensional, a dissenting voice, just as "Al-Jazeera's":http://www.cursor.org/aljazeera.htm was during the war (and still is over issues in the Middle East), provides a much needed alternative.
These are the questions that i would ask of any proposal to set up our own network:
# Is Malaysia in a position to make the impact Al-Jazeera did? Before the crisis in Iraq, Al-Jazeera was a backwater TV station. Circumstances allowed them to gain global recognition. Do such circumstance exist for a Malaysian network to provide a similar impact?
# Who's going to foot the bill? Al-Jazeera "received a ton of private and quasi-governmental funding":http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/monitoring/media_reports/1579929.stm. Even then, they "nearly went bust":http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/2908953.stm. Can you imagine Malaysian taxpayer ringgit being used to fund this network? A month "cost Malaysians RM$8million":http://jeffooi.blogspot.com/2003_05_04_jeffooi_archive.html#94019060. Is it worth it?
# Given that ALL Malaysians will be paying for this "independent" news network, it should provide equal and fair reporting covering ALL cross-segments of Malaysian society. But will this materialize, or will the network be used to promote a singular ideology, an extension of the Malaysian Government apparatus, not unlike RTM1 and RMT2?
Leave a comment