THE irony is too conspicuous to be unnoticed by anyone except a liberal critic when Malaysian newspapers publish reports announcing that Malaysia has no press freedom.
It was, however, precisely here where most Malaysians learned about the Reporters Without Borders' (RSF) latest World Press Freedom Index for 2021 accusing the country of controlling information.
This is apparently gleaned from the sentiment expressed by Malaysian news outlets. Our press is abound with grave concerns expressed by opposition politicians, and leftist activists and civil society organisations about how our media is being censored by the Perikatan Nasional (PN) helmed government of the day despite there being virtually no consequences for what they have done or said ever since PN took power early 2020.
For one, a PKR member of Parliament joined the France-based and largely US-funded NGO in slamming Malaysia as having 'restored authoritarian rule', particularly the rules prohibiting the publishing and circulation of fake news, saying that the definition of what constitutes fake news is too broad.
Given that the RSF's conclusions go virtually unchallenged in Malaysia, one wonders if fake news is even being curtailed enough. The repeal of the Anti-Fake News Act 2018 by the previous PH government certainly did not help matters, and as one recent controversy involving a young man supposedly 'assisted' by one DAP politician has shown, it is hard to tell the difference between fact and fiction anymore.
Moreover, intensely critical articles against the PN government appear in Malaysian news portals both mainstream and alternative, on a daily basis, we have even seen stories about how #KerajaanGagal was a trending hashtag on social media.
As a human rights activist with CENTHRA and a firm proponent of the cultural relativist approach thereto, I have personally been denied the right of reply on more occasions than I can count on issues from how we ought to accommodate the LGBTIQ+ movement to my own critical take on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
So, when RSF says that many journalists censor themselves, I believe them; but it has nothing to do with their fear of government harassment or reprisals; it is because they know they have to tow the leftist party line imposed on them by the likes of universalist organisations such as Amnesty International or Human Rights Watch.
One can argue that the RSF Index on Press Freedom is itself little more than a propaganda device in an age when fewer and fewer people are relying on newspapers for information. In a country with almost unrestricted internet access, what government would even bother trying to censor any institution of the legacy media?
With every major social media platform freely available, with no obstructions to messaging apps, with the capability of browsing websites on 2,3, and 4G networks across Malaysia, what earthly use would it do the government to control content on dying news portals while being unable to limit the flow of information on platforms with farther reach and greater audience numbers?
No, the new arbiters of information, the new Ministry of Truth, as the Orwellian term goes, is not this PN government or any other government for that matter, it is those that control the levers behind the social media giants known as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and the like.
The permanent banning of a sitting President of the United States a few months back by one of these platforms is a shining illustration of this fact.
Had the RSF been genuine in their concern for growing censorship and suppression of free speech in this globalised and interconnected world of us, and with all the resources at their disposal, they would have been the first not only to notice this trend, but to act to contain the same.
In other words, the RSF as well as its sham report have no real function other than to express subjective disapproval of a government, presumably because any state assigned a poor ranking on the Index is somehow deemed unworthy or uncooperative by RSF's funders; not for reasons that have anything to do with press censorship or freedom of speech.
The report was issued for it to be used exactly as it has been used; to dishonestly malign governments deemed too recalcitrant to dance to the tune demanded by westerners and their friends, and the PN government is being targeted precisely because it is one of these governments.
To this end, the RSF issues its faux reports in cahoots with various factions of the Malaysian opposition, in furtherance of their agenda.
The writer is founder, Centre for Human Rights Research and Advocacy (CENTHRA)
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times
