Fox Media, ECM Libra Avenue and Azman Mokhtar

FOX MEDIA. Why would the Country’s Editor-in-Chief (WATCH THIS SPACE!) want to buy into a company which was once housed in a SOHO (not the red-light district, but a small office home office) belonged to the former COO of NTV7?

Why would Fox Media be relocated to an obscure office within line of sight of a 4.9% shareholder of ECM-Libra Avenue?

Why would Fox Media be used to house and feed Brendan ‘Plagiarist’ Pereira (the Singaporean PR) and Wong Sulong, (the Australian PR)?

Why would Khazanah deny it before Azman Mokhtar’s contract was extended to 2010?

Why would Fox Media be given the RM7 million job for Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to relaunch Bandar Nusajaya into “Nusajaya City – The World In One City” this February 23, one day after Rocky’s court hearing?

 

NSTP & Gang amend Statements of Claims against bloggers

After being challenged by the lawyers representing bloggers Rocky and Jeff Ooi as a “fishing expedition” in a series of defamation suits that are described as “fatally deficient“, NSTP’s lawyers Shearn Delamore have decided to amend their Statements of Claims against their victims.

Sources from the legal fraternity said with the long Chinese New Year holidays in sight, the amended papers were hastily served minutes before the mandatory filing deadlines with the court expired.

Rocky’s application to have the defamation suit struck out will be up for mention in chambers on February 22. Jeff Ooi will have his mentioned on March 6.

Universiti Malaya law professor Azmi Sharom has described NSTP’s defamation suits against the two bloggers as an act of vengeance.

 

Malaysian Spin: Hunting for the Country Editor-in-Chief

So you have had all the mainstream media working over-time spinning stories about “Healthy Indicators of Economy“, about “Good Times Are Back“, and about the Magic Trillion in trade volume.

Who do you think is the great Editor-in-Chief for Malaysia that other EICs like Hishamuddin Aun (NSTP), Khalid Mohamed (Utusan), Ho Kay Tat (The Sun & The Edge) and Michael Aera (The Star) have to kow tow to? (Watch this space!)

But first, you need to admit that there had been a series of big, big half-truths oozing from Putrajaya, with more to come your way this season — because KLCI will slide after the Chinese New Year.

Don’t believe? Listen to Reuters, the international news agency. Its KL-based correspondent Jalil Hamid had filed a story that was syndicated through the world’s major newspapers, which ultimately was indexed by Google search engine. The headline yelled at your face: Malaysian spin on economy sparks poll talk.

Buzzword of the day: Malaysian Spin!

Apparently, editors from the newspapers had been summoned for a briefing (read: ‘MUST USE’). And Reuters just rubbed it in an inch deeper:

More such stories are on the cards, said one editor, who attended a government briefing recently.

However, the serious question is asked a different way: Why did the people NOT believe in the Malaysian Spin?

Just go over to Malaysiakini. It has a modest spread of readers who have spent time to write “Letters to the Editor” that the mainstream Press won’t print.

On the spin on the ‘Magic Trillion’, a Malaysiakini reader says:

The fact that Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and his bandwagon are so quick to shanghai this RM1 trillion figure alone and that the press has bandied it about as if it’s the litmus test of the economy or the epitome of successful economic achievements is downright demeaning, degrading and utterly puerile chicanery. It is an absolute disgrace and an insult to our intelligence and misleading to the ordinary man on the street who does not understand such economic data.

What I find so objectionable is the frequent irresponsible manner in which the BN government tries to psyche the common people with half-baked truths and mistruths. And if our local colleges and universities have been teaching our graduates no more than to imbibe such meaningless data, then it’s a sad, sad time for Malaysia.

A proper economic analysis would have to include trade data (imports, exports and their breakdowns), banking data, inflation statistics like the consumer price index, industrial production data, employment data, home ownership, amongst others.

Even blogger Aisehman has made three entries in his blog, taking a dissenting view to the Malaysian Spin.

 

How healthy is NST’s spin-doctoring?

The NST, with dirty finger prints of Kalimullah Masheerul Hassan all over its tabloid pages, has started another round spin-doctoring to boost his political master’s tattered image.

Reporters Adeline Paul Raj and Rupa Damodaran have both told their friends the copy printed on the frontpage of The NST February 6 wasn’t their original stories. It was news-slanted by deputy group editor Kamrul Idris Zulkifli at the instruction of The God.

In the story, Kamrul used the country’s international reserves as an indicator of Malaysia’s economy, hoodwinking NST readers to accept Kalimullah’s spin that everybody should feel good about the increasing international reserves.

Kalimullah had thought big numbers are good. Kalimullah had thought that international reserves that had increased from US$30.85 billion (1999) to US$70.48 billion (2005) is good because the numbers are big.

Kalimullah was proven wrong on his particular ignorance of macro-economics, and Kamrul’s too, by no less than Professor Emeritus Mohamed Ariff, who is the executive director of the Malaysian Institute of Economic Research (MIER).

And Kalimullah had to print Dr Mohamed Ariff’s rebuttal in The NST (February 9) or else the whole world of academics will treat the spin-doctor a greater pariah.

Read what Dr Ariff says about The NST, and by extension the Abdullah Administration being wrong, hopelessly wrong.

But when bloggers Jeff Ooi and Rocky had proved Kalimullah wrong for a lesser sin, they were selectively prosecuted using the Defamation Act! How about that for your God in the newsroom?

 

Foreign PR doing Abdullah’s PR

EXCLUSIVE! The latest political manoeuvre by Malaysia-based foreign operatives is now exposed!

It’s PR doing PR.

To be more precise, two Permanent Residents (PR) of two foreign countries will be engaged, using taxpayers’ money, to help Abdullah Ahmad Badawi improve his Public Relations, another type of PR.

The job goes to Brendan Pereira @ Brenden John a/l John Pereira, the former NST Group Editor, and Wong Sulong @ Wong Puan Wah, who recently retired from The Star as its Group Editor-in-Chief.

Both have been enlisted to help Abdullah spin-doctor the 9th Malaysia Plan, targetting the foreign investors.

Brendan and Wong will be the helmsmen behind a PR company mooted and financed by the 4th Floor Boys at Putrajaya. They will take orders from Kamal Khalid (KK), 36, who is the PM’s Media Special Officer and a non-executive director in Utusan Group.

KK, an operative of KJ the Son-in-Law, will in turn take orders from Malaysia’s Country Editor-in-Chief (watch this space!)

The financing of the Brendan-Wong PR outfit will be funded via Khazanah Nasional Berhad.

The immediate job-sheet for the duo is to reposition and rekindle the US$15 billion project for the South Johor Economic Region, which had its pre-sale momentum dampened because of the massive floods in December.

Permanent Residents in Singapore and Australia

Brendan holds a Permanent Resident (PR) status in Singapore. He left The NST late last year amidst allegations of plagiarism, and went away with his reputation bruised when BBC News refused to retract its story that The NST demanded done immediately.

Wong, 59, holds a PR status in Australia. He retired from The Star after having a tiff with Group CEO Steven Tan.

The MCA, which controls The Star, had apparently be very sore with Wong for playing kow-tow and avoided sharp media scrutiny of the Umno Youth ultras when the Chinese community came under attacks orchestrated by the Son-in-Law last year.

Wong walked out when The Star management was only willing to give him a 6-month extension as the Group Editor-in-Chief, and subject to review. There was immediate reshuffle of the editorial desks and regional bureau chiefs soon after he packed.

 

Singapore: Marina Mahathir takes up bloggers’ cause

EXCERPTS:

Now, the eldest child of former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad has decided to turn more active and has agreed to become a trustee of a fund to help two Malaysian bloggers being sued by the New Straits Times Press (NSTP).

The move by Datin Paduka Marina is being watched closely, with observers waiting to see the role she will play in the saga, as it follows closely her father’s vocal criticism of the current administration.

‘The space for people to express themselves is small,’ she told The Straits Times.

‘The new administration claims to be more open, but it does not meet people’s expectations because they are trying to touch cyberspace.’

‘What really convinced me to start a blog was seeing comments from people who wanted to restrict comments on the Internet. I felt I must get in right away,’ she said.

SOURCE: Straits Times (Singapore)
URL: www.straitstimes.com

Jan 31, 2007
Marina Mahathir takes up bloggers’ cause
Activist becomes trustee of fund to help two men sued by NSTP

By Reme Ahmad, Malaysia Bureau Chief

KUALA LUMPUR – DATIN Paduka Marina Mahathir started expressing her frank opinions on her blog 1-1/2 months ago after she heard that officials intended to curb free expression on online journals.

 

Injunction after injunctions: How Kalimullah abused law to silence critics

A reader by the name of A Voice wrote a thought-provoking piece in response to the AFP story: Bloggers undeterred by lawsuit. His thoughts deserve a prominent space for further in-depth discussions.

EXCERPTS:

We saw Kalimullah Hassan was successful to initially silence Husam Musa and Harakahdaily on the ECM-Avenue merger issue.

That was when the guerilla web/blog started to takeover and dessiminate online. It was heard that this sparked a minority challenge to the merger at the Avenue EGM. But it died down.

Matthias Chang attempted to garner attention but he went overboard with the accusation of corruption. Kali sued him and achieved the same “ceasefire”.

Finally, it was within the UMNO Penerangan Negeri sessions at FT, Selangor and Penang that they could not stop the issue anymore from the floor. Even when they had a Parliamentary PAC, it was hot for only 2 sessions and then, quiet.

 

YouTube: What the suits mean to the blogger-defendants

What these defamation suits against bloggers actually mean, and how bloggers are taking it – from the defendants’ point of view. It’s now on YouTube.

Video clip courtesy Zan Azlee of Fatbidin.com, under the series: ‘I May Be Malaysian, But I Carry A Big Stick’.

To view the video, click here to YouTube.

 

Malaysiakini CEO: Who’s next to shut up and shut down?

EXCERPTS:

It is only in the larger context of freedom of expression that the dichotomy between journalist and bloggers can be resolved. In Malaysia’s authoritarian environment, bloggers such as Ooi and Rocky are in the frontline of government action to curtail freedom of expression. As individuals, they are subject to legal, economic and political pressure to conform.

With the elections around the corner and the credibility of the current government shot to pieces by the debacle around water, tolls and petrol prices, it is impossible to see actions of plaintiffs merely within legal rights.

The granting of injunctions that demand the removal of content before the courts make a final and ultimate decision on the matter, creates an avenue for legal censorship that the ruling coalition has been waiting for. Be sure, if the state is successful in ensuring that bloggers kow-tow, it will not be long before other bloggers as well as independent media such as malaysiakini and the Sun will have to choose between shutting up or shutting down.

It is not just bloggers that should unite, but all those who stand for free and responsible expression.

SOURCE: Malaysiakini
URL: www.malaysiakini.com/opinionsfeatures/62781

Blogs and boundaries of responsibility
Premesh Chandran
Jan 30, 07 3:01pm

The political role of the Internet came to Malaysia in the form of Reformasi websites, following the arrest of former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim in September 1998. Armed with their dial-up connections, early users would eagerly lap up the latest news and gossip from sites such as Mahafiruan (Great Pharaoh), FreeMalaysia and Laman Reformasi.

Published anonymously, these websites would pour scorn on the prime minister and his cabinet, mixing facts with a healthy dose of myth, speculation and propaganda. Yet, with the mainstream media cowed by government control, these websites developed a strong following, ebbing only when the Reformasi movement waned and lost its steam.

In formulating malaysiakini, the founders took a conscious decision to publish a site with a face. We would publish news that matters, and stand behind those posting. All our articles carried bylines. Readers who contributed to the Letters section would have their identity protected, with the editor carrying the responsibility for letters published. Over the past seven years, malaysiakini has successfully built a reputation for credibility.

Bloggers have a similar choice. Remain anonymous and publish as you please or identify yourself as risk legal action for every word that is published.

 

Public interest & open court hearing

It came from a man on the street at the Kuala Lumpur High Court today.

It’s a big issue of public interest. Will we get to hear it all at the open court instead of hearing in chambers?

Let’s not close an eye.