The sad end of The Malaysian Insider (TMI) is devastating to Malaysian journalism in more ways than one. It was one of the only news organisations left in the country that combined institutional experience and conscientious, principled journalism. In the ranks of TMI were seasoned reporters and editors who were formerly from the mainstream media, and whose experience deserve some mention here because Malaysians need to understand what kind of a loss we have collectively sustained.
TMI’s V. Anbalagan is a quiet and unassuming veteran journalist with decades of court reporting experience under his belt. V.Vasudevan is probably the most experienced Parliamentary reporter we have, and after the late Pak Non, was one of the favourite Dewan Rakyat doyens younger journalists sought for guidance. Indefatigable Lionel Morais is a weathered crime reporter and editor, and Deborah Loh, Sheridan Mahavera and Husna Yusop are some of the best journalists we have asking the right questions. TMI chief Jahabar Sadiq’s long-time experience in Reuters is well known. As a former reporter I have worked with some of these fine folk, so some may call me biased. But this is not just a mere nostalgic shout out to old friends, this is raising the alarm about what kind of journalism Malaysia will have with TMI’s demise. Mainstream papers such as The New Straits Times and The Star have institutional significance, having trained a legion of reporters for decades. As papers linked to the ruling coalition in Malaysia, they may have lacked the ability to go for the independent and investigative news that mattered, but they had the history, resources and scope to train journalists in the traditional style – beat reporting, group assignments, house style and rules, and mentorship. There were many career journalists, and you could spend your coffee break chatting with silver-haired sub-editors who had been through the 1969 riots, or put issues in context with priceless archives worth their weight in gold.
When the likes of Malaysiakini and other alternative Press came into the nation’s consciousness, their reporters covered the stories these mainstream papers could or would not report. There were however, challenges, such as training new or young journalists with limited resources. This also meant covering issues or events that were more reactive – there wasn’t the luxury of having reporters concentrate or specialise in an education or parliamentary beat, for example. By the time TMI was well established, and other alternative news sites such as The Nut Graph came into the picture, more reporters who had been trained in the mainstream joined these new entities, relishing the opportunity to practise the kind of conscientious journalism we had been hoping to practise all the while. I got to work with a small dream team of reporters under Jacqueline Ann Surin for a brief but eye-opening time, until TNG ceased publication in 2014. Like many reporters who had joined the exodus from the mainstream media, this was the perfect transition – institutional experience, combined with the contacts we already had, and a hunger to write about the things we really wanted to write. With TNG, we even had quote and fact checks with our interviewees for every article. This may be standard practice for many international news organisations, but this is generally not the case in Malaysia.
Sites like Malaysiakini, TMI and TNG really gave us hope, and the opportunity to try and make a difference. Sadly, the struggle to keep these sites going was and is real. With the exception of Malaysiakini – which enjoys pioneer status of sorts and a subscriber base – the others often went through changes and transformations due to financial difficulties. As we can see with TMI’s recent challenges, the added pressure of a government that seeks to repress freedoms even further means that Malaysia is far from having a stable of accountable, responsible and ethical news organisations to compete with each other. There are very few online sites left that practise journalism with the sort of checks and processes traditional news organisations practise. In fact, there seems to be a new mushrooming of online sites that claim to produce news, but which actually aggregate or rehash existing articles. Obviously, this is not just a Malaysian problem. All over the world, journalists and news organisations are facing serious challenges to do with sustainability, declining sales and clickbait content.
What happens when the conscientious and experienced leave the mainstream media for the online news scene, only to find it is commercially unsustainable or unpredictable? Many of the finest Malaysian journalists I know have ventured into other professions. Some are still fighting the good fight in the alternative news organisations we have left. Of those left in the mainstream media, some are doing what they can, some are partial to the ruling coalition, and some are just resigned to staying in a (more) stable and secure employment. How will aspiring journalists learn from the best in the future? Where will they go?
While the mainstream papers still have a role to play in the media landscape in the country, one only has to think about how citizens would have known about issues like 1MDB without the likes of The Malaysian Insider. They call the Press the Fourth Estate, the fourth branch of the state that keeps an eye on the executive, the legislature and the judiciary for the people. The Press is necessary to hold these major institutions accountable, to guard against tyranny and to preserve liberty. Malaysians have been sharing and commenting on the articles produced by alternative news sites for years. Now they should ask themselves how much they value quality journalism that can truly serve as Malaysia’s Fourth Estate. Are they willing to pay for news? Will they support other existing alternative news sites? Will they push for Press freedom? Will they do anything at all?
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