Zainah Anwar, the Executive Director of Sisters in Islam, gave her view on Freedom of Press in Malaysia

IN 1995, I gave a talk on press freedom and censorship at the annual training of officers from the Ministry of Home Affairs’ Control of Publications Unit, the government’s censorship department. These were the people who decided which books, magazine or newspaper article we could read and which photographs we could see.

By the end of my 30-minute presentation, I came to a conclusion: I recommended that the unit be shut down, that it served no purpose as every bit of information or photograph it wanted to censor, because of the discomfort it might cause to the leadership or to safeguard our morals, was available through the Internet, fax, videos, surat layang and the rumour mill.

There was a stunned silence. I had not planned to recommend the shutdown of the unit, of course, but 30 minutes of hearing my own arguments on the futility of censorship in the age of information technology, I could not but be honest and tell those civil servants in front of me that their black felt-tip pens, used to black out undesirable information and parts of the body in art and photography books and catalogues, had gone way past their sell-by date. And this, before the age of blogging and news portals.

Poor Encik Mokhtar, the liberal director of the unit, who had invited me for the second time to enlighten his staff on press freedom, press laws and censorship. Needless to say, none of his staff was in the mood to engage in any discussion. So it ended up as a dialogue between me and Encik Mokhtar for the rest of the one-hour session. And, of course, that was the last time I was invited to give a talk to the unit.

The unit remains thriving today, in fact, expanded to include Quranic texts.

I wish our political leaders and government servants would wake up to living in the information age. There has been a seismic transformation in how people receive information and form opinions. Those with formal authority are no longer the authorities in the age of information technology. The government can no longer maintain control over what people read, hear, watch, let alone think.

Mainstream journalists are no longer the gatekeepers over what the public knows. The ability of technology to cause change is much faster than the ability of government to control change.

The big losers in this age are those who hold traditional power.

Those with authority, expertise and qualification can no longer monopolise the right to tell us what is right and what is wrong. They have to compete for their voice to be heard and their influence to hold sway in a truly free marketplace of ideas.

Technology has led to this shift in the power equation. Those with no qualification, no expertise can now have influence over public opinion. The democratisation of information, access to information, and power to create and disseminate news and information 24/7 have led to a decentralisation of power.

The citizen is no longer the consumer of news; he collects, reports, analyses and disseminates news and information.

Information technology has empowered the citizen. Truth is no longer the product of a few wise men to guide and direct the citizenry on what to believe in and what to support.

The answer to this loss of control over information is not the sledgehammer of censorship, punitive laws and scare tactics, but a genuinely free press.

I tell friends that my one wish every year is to wake up in the morning and read just one newspaper as my main source of information about Malaysia, instead of having to scour through newspapers, magazines, online news and blogosphere to find out what is truly going on in this country and how people feel about a issue.

If the mainstream media is the government’s main channel of communication with the public, then it is in the government’s interest to promote a free press so that mainstream journalism remains a credible source of information in the face of challenges from new media.

To begin with, it is high time the government began a review of all the restrictive press laws and joined the more than 70 countries in the world which have a Freedom of Information Act.

It is an anachronism that this country has press laws that require publishers and printers to apply for a renewal of their licences every year.

Not only that, there can be no judicial review of any ministerial decision to revoke or suspend a permit.

Other laws such as the Official Secrets Act, the Sedition Act, and the Internal Security Act have all been damaging to journalism in Malaysia.

These laws were made even more restrictive in the mid-1980s with more punitive amendments, including the end to judicial review.

Such laws are relics of a different time. The promise of greater transparency and accountability must necessitate a review of such draconian legislation and the enactment of a freedom of information law that sets rules on access to information held by government bodies.

Recognising the public right to know about information collected, maintained, and disseminated by the government will go a long way in promoting good governance. For it is the entrenched culture of secrecy and non-disclosure that breeds corruption and undermines good policy making and implementation, and, therefore, undermines good governance.

One of the most progressive Right to Information acts was passed by the Indian parliament in 2005 which enables a citizen to ask for information from the central government or local authorities and even to inspect public works and take samples.

Every public authority must have a public information officer who must respond to citizen’s request for information within 30 days, or if the request concerns the life or liberty of a person, within 48 hours.

The act includes a list of exemptions on grounds such as security or privacy, but they are all subject to a blanket override whereby information may be released if the public interest in disclosure outweighs the harm to the interest protected.

The trend is for governments, corporations and multilateral institutions to move towards establishing effective disclosure policies or laws.

In 2002, following a workshop with media practitioners, Suhakam recommended that the government enact a Freedom of Information Act and the setting up of an independent, impartial and self-regulating media council to enable journalists to exercise greater control over their profession.

A free and accountable press provide independent, reliable, accurate and comprehensive information that enables citizens to take part in public life.

Surely, in our 50th year of independence, Malaysians have reached a level of maturity to listen to a multiplicity of voices, and in the end, separate truth from falsehood.

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