The Centre for Independent Journalism is launching its “Watching the Watchdog: Media Monitoring for 13th General Election” project, the biggest exercise of its kind ever undertaken by civil society in Malaysia, encompassing 29 media platforms across Malaysia’s four main languages.

Good journalism involves asking the right questions. Asking who, what, when, where, why and how is part and parcel of any journalist’s toolkit. But how effectively did the major print media apply these tools when reporting on the recent Government Transformation Programme (GTP) first year celebrations?

IT’S commonly accepted that the media play a role in shaping public perception. But how exactly does that happen? Here’s an analysis of Utusan Malaysia’s coverage on two issues: the controversy over Interlok, and the request for the dawn azan’s volume to be lowered at a mosque in Kampung Kerinchi, Kuala Lumpur.

By Ding Jo-Ann How did the local print media report on WikiLeaks’ disclosures involving Malaysia? The impact of WikiLeaks finally reached Malaysian shores when Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald (Herald) published leaked US state department cables of Singaporean officials’ views about Malaysian affairs. Interestingly, the leaked cables contained negative comments on both Prime Minister Najib Razak [...]

By Ding Jo-Ann HOW did the press cover the protest in Kuala Lumpur on 5 December 2010 over the Selangor water tariff hikes? According to reports, more than 4,000 protesters attempted to march from Masjid Negara to Istana Negara, to call for the return of water rights to the people. Protesters, however, were thwarted with [...]

CIJ has written a letter to Utusan Malaysia over the paper's selective representation of CIJ's views on the issue of media barring by political parties.     Pusat Kewartawanan Bebas (Centre for Independent Journalism) 27C Jalan Sarikei, Off Jalan Pahang 53000 Kuala Lumpur Tel: 03 4023 0772 Fax: 4023 0769 Surat Kepada Pengarang 11 Disember [...]

CIJ conducted a media monitoring of four dailies (Utusan Malaysia, The Star, New Straits Times and theSun) as well as three online news portals (The Malaysian Insider, Malaysiakini and The Nut Graph) on the coverage of the by-elections in Bukit Gantang, Bukit Selambau and Batang Ai. Read more for the findings of the monitoring project. [...]

Malaysian youths still rely on mainstream media as primary source of information but they are taking it with a pinch of salt.   By Gayathry Venkiteswaran KUALA LUMPUR: Young people using the Internet tend to visit the sites of the mainstream media online, a survey by Merdeka Centre revealed today.   Top of the list [...]

The election media monitor initiative, organized by the Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ), Writers Alliance for Media Independence (WAMI) and Charter 2000-Aliran confirmed that major print media continue to the line of the incumbent government, formed by the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, in their election coverage by allocating the majority of stories and spaces for [...]

Preliminary statistics from the citizens' media monitoring initiative show biases towards the Barisan Nasional in covering the elections.     KUALA LUMPUR, Wed: Mainstream newspapers gave up to 77 percent coverage for the Barisan Nasional in terms of stories on the 12th general elections in the week leading to the nominations on 24 February. On [...]