KUALA SELANGOR, June 22: The failure of media which is considered “mainstream” can be seen from Pakatan Rakyat’s advancement in the 13th General Election (GE-13), which managed to increase the number of seats despite being repeatedly attacked by them.
In the GE-13, Pakatan won 89 parliamentary seats compared to the 82 won during the GE-12. Meanwhile, the Selangor Pakatan Rakyat recorded excellent results by increasing the number of State Legislative Assembly (DUN) seats from 36 to 44.
Political Secretary to the Selangor Chief Minister, Faekah Husin said that the publication of defamatory news against PKR De Facto Leader, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and PKR Deputy-President, Azmin Ali, is no longer relevant and is not accepted by the people.
“In 2008, the mainstream media in 2008 the mainstream media over exacerbate PR and disgusted people in the mainstream media. The people did not want to read the newspapers, the people turned off their televisions. Let us not undermine the people’s wisdom.
“Umno-BN’s problem rests in the reports by Utusan Malaysia and TV3 because they ‘overkill’ (reports) making the people fed-up with them,” she said when she was a panellist in a discourse titled “Mainstream Media: What is PR’s fate?”
The discourse was organised by Sinar Harian in collaboration with the Selangor State Development Cooperation (PKNS) which was held at De Palma Hotel here today.
Other panellists included the Editorial Advisor for Sinar Harian, Datuk Abdul Kalil Alo and former Chief Writer of Bernama, Datuk Seri Azman Ujang, while the moderator was Wan Saiful Wan Jan from the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (Ideas).
Therefore, faekah said that the role the mainstream media plays can be considered as a failure in influencing the people to support Umno-BN.
“If the front-page news of the mainstream media plays a role, Anwar would not have won in the GE-13 and Azmin Ali would not win either. In fact, Selangor would have not won the 44 DUN seats,” she said.
Meanwhile, Abdul Jalil said that the mainstream media should emulate The Star where despite being controlled by MCA, it still gives space to the opposition such as DAP, PAS and PKR in its news reports.
“It is wrong for a party-owned media to not give space to the opposition. Being preoccupied with their own political news would reduce its own credibility,” she said.
