Online Journalism Should be Controlled. Really?

  

The Fourth Estate, another power recognized after executive, legislative and judiciary. The fourth estate is the title given to the media. Media is now recognized as one of the main power that influences the state of a nation. Despite of the existence of the conventional media which leads to conventional journalism, the emergence of the internet since the past years had led all of us to a new term in journalism which is online journalism.

Online journalism is better defined as news and information found and uploaded on the internet which allow readers to read via the usage of computerized devices such as computer and smartphones (Wolk, 2001)

Compared to the conventional journalism, online journalism has higher level of speed in delivering news. This is as simple as one click, and then the news is on the internet. Take for instance, a rally just happened in Kuala Lumpur. Mainstream print media such as Berita Harian, Harian Metro and Utusan Malaysia will only publish the news on the next day. Unlike the online media, items and news can be uploaded in an instance. Maybe 10-15 minutes after the occurrence of anything they will be available on the internet.

Dilemma; the printed or the online newspaper?

But nowadays, online journalism is divided into three. The very first one is the mainstream online journalism such as Berita Harian Online, Mstar Online and Utusan Online which mostly consist of news from their respective print newspaper. Secondly, independent online journalism such as MalaysiaKini, Malaysia Today and Agenda Daily. These two categories are considered reliable and ethically behaved as they are in line together with the mainstream player in the industry.

When, there is black, there will definitely white as well. The same thing goes with the internet. The good contributions of the internet in delivering and providing news to the people are undeniably huge but no one can deny the negative side as well. It is the third category; free writers. These kinds of writers usually write blatantly without really investigating the real situation. They are mostly opinion-centered without facts. These kinds of people usually are called bloggers. The problem with bloggers is that they are free to write anything with any gatekeepers. In fact, they are their own gatekeeper. Contrast to conventional ways which they have editors who usually will be the gatekeepers. They will determine the kind of news and angle of news to publish. Bloggers are not bound to any gatekeeping process before publishing or uploading anything to their blog.

Even the little ones read blogs!

Most bloggers are talking about current issues. But as mentioned, there are no gatekeepers or editors when you are writing a blog. All you have is ethics. This means you only have guidelines that won’t cause stop you if you are about to break it. Plus, ethics also only allow you to perform self-censorship. No one to actually stop or edit your writing. This is not a healthy thing. Let’s take one good example of the weak side of online journalism; Raja Petra. As we all concerned, his case regarding an article in his blog; “Let’s send the Altantuya murderers to hell” has caused him to be detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA) which has been abolished this year. In this case, Raja Petra was detained under Section 8 ISA: Power to order detention or restriction of persons. "(i) If the Minister is satisfied that the detention of any person is necessary with a view to preventing him from acting in any manner prejudicial to the security of Malaysia or any part thereof or to the maintenance of essential services therein or the economic life thereof, he may make an order (hereinafter referred to as a detention order) directing that that person be detained for any period not exceeding two years." The order was signed by Home Minister Dato’ Seri Syed Hamid Albar at that time. Raja Petra was charged for posing a threat to the national security by creating racial tension. What if there was a gatekeeper who actually stops him from posting such things in his blogs? What if there was an editor to edit his article before it was posted? But it was all just an “IF”. Unfortunately, for online journalism, there’s no such thing. If all that are available, of course there will be no racial tension and there will be no detention of Raja Petra under the ISA.

Yes, people might say that the government has indeed set a law for this. Several rules and regulations that regulate the activities of both conventional media and online media as well were set. But, as we can see the number of those people who actually break the laws is the online media. Laws like Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission Act 1998 [Act 589], Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 [Act 588], Digital Signature Act 1997 [Act 562] and Postal Services Act 1991 [Reprint - 2001] [ Act 465] are being regulated by Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) or better known as Suruhanjaya Komunikasi Multimedia Malaysia (SKMM). They are functioning as the rules to control the media. But, the big question mark is how far it could go to stop online media from misusing the internet? It is almost impossible. Eventhough there are some cases where the laws were enforced on online media writers but it is only after the issue was highlighted by the mainstream media. What about those that are not highlighted? It is very easy to experiment on this. You may try to Google the word “Melayu babi”. The result of the search engine will surprise you. There are millions of hits on this. Is the law really regulate the online writers? It is something for us to ponder on.

Simply put, the online journalism can be a good thing if and only if it can be controlled and regulate. The gap between these two types of journalism is quite big. Misuse of the power in the fourth estate will cost us a lot. Both online journalism and conventional journalism are doing their work that is to disseminate the information to the public. Just one must really know how to distinguish the right and the wrong. Online journalism is indeed a great power which should come with great consequences if it is not use properly. The same obligation goes to conventional journalism. Anything in this world, if conducted ethically right, will be a good thing. And too much is never good.

As the saying goes,

 “TOO MUCH OF ANYTHING CAN MAKE YOU FAT SICK”.

Peace Malaysia!