Enemies of the Press
No 8 in a series
Musa Hassan, Inspector-General of Police
Bakri Zinin, director of CID
Four months after The Star pulled a column off its web site under heavy criticism, the Malay Mail has pulled the same stunt, yanking an exclusive front-page splash after a complaint by the police.
Not just the police, but the head of police. The Inspector-General of Police (or PIG as his many law-abiding fans on the Internet lovingly refer to him).
Not just any old complaint either. The man… err, the feller… quoted directly in the Mail's exclusive last Monday then denies in a late-night statement that anyone had spoken to him at all.
That's as good as saying the reporter, Jonathan Fernandez, had lied or made up the story.
And The Star, gloating the next day, quotes Bakri Zinin, director of CID, to say criminal investigations had begun on the Mail for publishing "false news".
Can you beat that? According to the police then, this lowly crime reporter dared to cook up, fabricate, pull out of thin air, and put into print, actual words that he says he heard coming out of the mouth of the IGP.
One heck of a daring guy.
If you believe the police.
They never lie, do they?
So if I am a bigwig official and to put pressure on some people I tell you some things and you print it in good faith and the next day I deny it then the story becomes false news?
(Of course if the reporter was in on the gag, or his boss was, then it's a different story altogether.)
The PIG…sorry, typing mistake, the GIT…no, no, how do you spell it, the I. G. P… I think that's how they spell it… this feller who a lot of people wish would vanish off the face of the earth preferably before September but who a lot of others wish would remain forever on account of a billion-ringgit project at Bukit Aman involving Israelis, Singaporeans, foreign intelligence, Anwar Ibrahim, the Dewan Rakyat, Hishammuddin Tun Hussein… hmm, that doesn't quite sound right.
How about this then… the IGP, the man under a lot of criticism for things like how come people must pay for security guards around their housing estates and can't rely on the police, and how come a young boy got shot dead but his parents got blamed and his car became a lethal weapon and the IGP got loving front-page treatment in the NotStraitsTimes and the dead boy's young friend who was bashed up got called a liar and then was pulled up several times for grilling and … hmmm…
Try again…. the head of police whose contract ends this year but who the China Press said was about to resign but who didn't and who the Home Minister later insisted must leave at the end of his contract in September and he has already got some names in mind but in the meantime the editor of the paper was made a scapegoat… hmm, that doesn't quite flow…
It's only been four months since the Daily Red pulled P Gunasegaram's column; he hasn't returned to his weekly Thursday spot. He did get an award at the Rocky & Co shindig at the National Press Club, the same Rocky in charge of the Mail, Bernama TV and something to do with Malaysian Reserve.
This is the same Malay Mail with a column by Rusdi Mustapha who called Lim Teck Ghee's Centre for Policy Initiatives a bunch of dirty commies, and caused blogger Zorro (Bernard Khoo) to be hauled up to Bukit Aman because of a childish caricature of the police force symbol.
So in this brave new Malaysia of the third millenium, anything an official says must be true. Even if it's not. And if an official says you're wrong, then you're wrong. Even if you're not.
That's Musa Hassan and Bukit Aman's Malaysia. Not ours.
Dishonorable mentions:
Journalists must always keep the powerful at arm's length.
No 8 in a series
Musa Hassan, Inspector-General of Police
Bakri Zinin, director of CID
Four months after The Star pulled a column off its web site under heavy criticism, the Malay Mail has pulled the same stunt, yanking an exclusive front-page splash after a complaint by the police.
Not just the police, but the head of police. The Inspector-General of Police (or PIG as his many law-abiding fans on the Internet lovingly refer to him).
Not just any old complaint either. The man… err, the feller… quoted directly in the Mail's exclusive last Monday then denies in a late-night statement that anyone had spoken to him at all.
That's as good as saying the reporter, Jonathan Fernandez, had lied or made up the story.
And The Star, gloating the next day, quotes Bakri Zinin, director of CID, to say criminal investigations had begun on the Mail for publishing "false news".
Can you beat that? According to the police then, this lowly crime reporter dared to cook up, fabricate, pull out of thin air, and put into print, actual words that he says he heard coming out of the mouth of the IGP.
One heck of a daring guy.
If you believe the police.
They never lie, do they?
So if I am a bigwig official and to put pressure on some people I tell you some things and you print it in good faith and the next day I deny it then the story becomes false news?
(Of course if the reporter was in on the gag, or his boss was, then it's a different story altogether.)
The PIG…sorry, typing mistake, the GIT…no, no, how do you spell it, the I. G. P… I think that's how they spell it… this feller who a lot of people wish would vanish off the face of the earth preferably before September but who a lot of others wish would remain forever on account of a billion-ringgit project at Bukit Aman involving Israelis, Singaporeans, foreign intelligence, Anwar Ibrahim, the Dewan Rakyat, Hishammuddin Tun Hussein… hmm, that doesn't quite sound right.
How about this then… the IGP, the man under a lot of criticism for things like how come people must pay for security guards around their housing estates and can't rely on the police, and how come a young boy got shot dead but his parents got blamed and his car became a lethal weapon and the IGP got loving front-page treatment in the NotStraitsTimes and the dead boy's young friend who was bashed up got called a liar and then was pulled up several times for grilling and … hmmm…
Try again…. the head of police whose contract ends this year but who the China Press said was about to resign but who didn't and who the Home Minister later insisted must leave at the end of his contract in September and he has already got some names in mind but in the meantime the editor of the paper was made a scapegoat… hmm, that doesn't quite flow…
Anyway the Mail story was denied. Just like the China Press story was denied. The Mail runs the Bernama story with a straight face. It only says "an English daily". The Mail buat bodoh and doesn't say it's their own story got denied. The story disappears off the web site. The Star gloats the next day. Doesn't identify the Mail but says a criminal investigation has begun.
It's only been four months since the Daily Red pulled P Gunasegaram's column; he hasn't returned to his weekly Thursday spot. He did get an award at the Rocky & Co shindig at the National Press Club, the same Rocky in charge of the Mail, Bernama TV and something to do with Malaysian Reserve.
This is the same Malay Mail with a column by Rusdi Mustapha who called Lim Teck Ghee's Centre for Policy Initiatives a bunch of dirty commies, and caused blogger Zorro (Bernard Khoo) to be hauled up to Bukit Aman because of a childish caricature of the police force symbol.
So in this brave new Malaysia of the third millenium, anything an official says must be true. Even if it's not. And if an official says you're wrong, then you're wrong. Even if you're not.
That's Musa Hassan and Bukit Aman's Malaysia. Not ours.
Dishonorable mentions:
- Royal Malaysia Police
- The Malay Mail for not standing by its story; for Rusdi's games
- The Star for pulling Guna's column; for playing along with Bukit Aman
- The New Straits Times for backing Musa Hassan in heroic proportions
Journalists must always keep the powerful at arm's length.
© 2010 uppercaise
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