Readers shun newspapers for Internet and scandal sheets

Readers shun newspapers for Internet and scandal sheets

By Yow Hong Chieh, Shazwan Mustafa Kamal, Melissa Zavier and Lee Wei Lian

TheMalaysianInsider.com: September 10, 2010

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 10 — Malaysian newspapers are experiencing a fall in circulation as readers turn to the Internet for hard news and tabloid-style scandal sheets for their diet of entertainment and sensationalism.

Circulation at the traditional mainstays of the local media landscape — The Star, New Straits Times, Utusan Malaysia and Berita Harian — has fallen over the past five years, in some cases dramatically so. The only exception is Chinese daily Sin Chew which saw circulation jump.

Figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) show that during the period 2005 to 2009, The Star’s circulation dropped from 310,000 to 287,000 (-7.4 per cent), the New Straits Times from 139,000 to 111,000 (-20 per cent), Utusan Malaysia from 213,000 to 169,000 (-21 per cent) and Berita Harian from 204,000 to 155,000 (-24 per cent).

Sin Chew, however, saw circulation rise from 324,000 to 382,000 (+18 per cent).

The downward trend has continued for this year with NST’s circulation going below 100,000 copies on several days recently.

Apart from the drop in circulation, mainstream newspapers are also not selling much outside the Klang Valley, which leads to questions about whether they can shape public opinion as hoped for by the Barisan Nasional (BN) government.

The Malaysian Insider understands that senior editors at many newspapers would like to give the opposition and alternative views more airing but control from Putrajaya and Umno remains severe.

A combination of changing tastes and competition from the Internet have contributed to the decline.

Many corporate readers have switched to going online and reduced the number of subscriptions for their offices.

The general public also appear bored with political drama and suspect that mainstream media is controlled by the government and tends to filter the news.

A recent poll by the independent Merdeka Center found that 54 per cent of Malays polled and 55 per cent of Chinese surveyed did not trust reports in the mainstream media.

College students, meanwhile, either feel distrustful of mainstream media or are ignoring it entirely, preferring to get their information and entertainment from multiple sources.

One Malaysian, who heads the local office of an MNC, said he has stopped subscriptions for The Star and New Straits Times at his office and buys one personal copy of The Star for the business coverage and the advertisements.

He also reads The Sun which distributes about 300,000 free copies around the nation daily.

“There seems to be more propaganda than anything else,” said the frustrated country manager who spoke on condition of anonymity. “A lot of people buy newspapers just to look at supermarket and job advertisements.”

One country manager of an international transportation company said he has stopped reading news in print but has switched instead to accessing the Internet via his mobile phone.

“Getting updates via the mobile phone is so fast,” he said. “People prefer to get business and political news from the Internet but buy tabloids to read gossip to pass the time.”

One media analyst with a local research house said the Internet is now the “longest running medium” in most people’s lives, given that practically all offices have computers that are hooked up to the Internet all day.

“Mainstream publications are also moving towards more lifestyle and sensationalist news because they put their hard news online the day before,” said the analyst.

Fortunately for traditional print media, despite the falling circulation, advertising expenditure continues to grow although more slowly than other channels such as free-to-air television (FTV), point of sales (POS) and the Internet.

Figures from market research firm Nielsen show that print media revenue grew 18 per cent during the first six months of this year compared with 55 per cent for the Internet, 29 per cent for FTV and 27 per cent for POS.

The Star alone — which dominates the valuable urban readership market with 178,000 copies sold in the KL/Selangor region, far ahead of No. 2 Harian Metro at 120,000 — sold RM497 million in advertisements in the first half of this year, up 28 per cent.

“The circulation trends don’t affect advertising,” said Margaret Lim, executive chairman of Carat Media Services.

Bucking the trend, however, are the so-called “light reading” newspapers such as Harian Metro, China Press and Kosmo.

A large chunk of the reading public have been drawn to the “hot” gossip stories, catchy headlines and large sensational photographs in the light reading titles as evidenced by the surge in circulation.

ABC’s figures show that from 2005 to 2009, Harian Metro’s circulation shot up from 250,000 to 350,000 and Kosmo went from 101,000 in 2006 to 172,000 in 2009.

Jamal, an insurance executive attached to a motor workshop, said he likes Harian Metro due to the “hot news”. He is also an occasional reader of Sinar Harian and Kosmo and buys The Star to scan job advertisements.

“There is too much political news and I feel the coverage isn’t very neutral,” he replied when asked why he doesn’t buy Utusan Malaysia or Berita Harian. “Malas nak beli (I don’t feel like buying).”

One Utusan reader, who works in the 3D animation industry, said one reason the paper’s circulation has dropped is that he has switched to the online version instead of buying a copy.

“I just pick and choose which stories I want and it’s easier to go online,” he said.

Sin Chew, which saw circulation rise, could be the beneficiary of the move of the majority of Chinese parents to shun national schools in favour of Chinese schools.

Rita Sim, executive director of Sin Chew media, said 85-90 per cent of Malaysian Chinese can now read Chinese.

“The Chinese language has gone mainstream,” she said. “And we’ve got the pulse of the Chinese community.”

She also said English titles had suffered as English is the language of the Internet.

“It is easier for English readers to switch to the Internet,” she said.

Echoes of ideologies clashing

By Eli Clifton

WASHINGTON - China reacted strongly to Hillary Clinton’s speech in which the United States secretary of state called on it to investigate security breaches which preceded Google's decision last week to end its cooperation with Chinese Internet censorship.
And on Sunday, A Chinese Industry Ministry spokesman flatly rejected claims Beijing was behind the recent cyber attacks. "The accusation that the Chinese government participated in [any] cyber attack, either in an explicit or inexplicit way, is groundless," the spokesman said. "We [are] firmly opposed to that."

The state-run China Daily said the US's strategy was "to exploit its advantages in Internet funds, technology and marketing and export its politics, commerce and culture to other nations for political, commercial and cultural interests of the world's only superpower".

 
Clinton's speech last week spelled out the Obama administration's position on Internet freedom, and publicly called on Chinese authorities to investigate the security breaches which Google said had convinced it to end its cooperation with Chinese Internet censorship.

"Those who disrupt the free-flow of information in our society or any other pose a threat to our economy, our government and our civil society," said Clinton.

On January 12, Google announced that it would cease to censor its search engine results in China and, if an agreement could not be reached with the government, it would shut down its offices in China.

Google’s announcement was accompanied by accusations that Chinese hackers had breached its security and gained access to the e-mail accounts of several diplomats, journalists and Chinese human-rights activists.

The company’s decision to go public about security breaches and refuse to continue with censorship of Google search engine results has called attention to Beijing's efforts at censorship, as well as rampant corporate espionage and intellectual property theft reportedly conducted by, or on behalf of, Chinese companies.

While the Chinese government has denied involvement in the hacking of Google e-mail accounts and claims to be committed to protecting intellectual property rights, many in the US believe it hasn't made a serious effort to stamp out such violations.

According to a Federal Bureau of Investigation report leaked by the Daily Beast, the Chinese government has developed 180,000 cyber spies, action that "poses the largest single threat to the United States for cyber terrorism and has the potential to destroy vital infrastructure, interrupt banking and commerce, and compromise sensitive military and defense databases."

The report, if true, makes Google’s claims of isolated attempts to hack into e-mail accounts the tip of the iceberg, and would suggest China’s capability to use cyber spies for corporate espionage and cyber-terrorism represents a threat which cuts across human rights, banking and commerce, and national security issues.

"Secretary Clinton has elevated Internet freedom to a key US priority by confronting governments that censor online speech and supporting companies that stand up for human rights," said Arvind Ganesan, business and human-rights director for Human Rights Watch. "The challenge now will be to put these goals into practice by incorporating Internet freedom into diplomacy, trade policy and meaningful pressure on companies to act responsibly."

Indeed, privacy advocates and human-rights groups have spoken out in support of Google's decision to stand up to Beijing's censorship. Clinton's speech touched on not only the pragmatic national security implications of Chinese cyber attacks but also the broader ideological struggle facing companies seeking to do business in China, or other countries which practice censorship.

Clinton framed her remarks in the context of the growing importance of the Internet in connecting people in such diverse places as Iran after the tumultuous June elections and Haiti after last week's earthquake. But her comments defined a clear doctrine of where the Obama administration stands on Internet freedom and privacy.

"On their own, new technologies do not take sides in the struggle for freedom and progress, but the United States does,’’ said Clinton.

"We stand for a single Internet where all of humanity has equal access to knowledge and ideas. And we recognize that the world's information infrastructure will become what we and others make of it.

"Now, this challenge may be new, but our responsibility to help ensure the free exchange of ideas goes back to the birth of our republic. The words of the First Amendment to our constitution are carved in 50 tons of Tennessee marble on the front of this building,’’ she said, referring to a 74-foot-high engraving of the First Amendment at the Newseum in Washington DC, where she was speaking. "Every generation of Americans has worked to protect the values etched in that stone," Clinton said at the Newseum in Washington DC.

Reports have suggested that Google may be more flexible in its stance than its statement a week ago, which read: "We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all."

The decision to no longer cooperate in censoring search results means it is unlikely that the company's Chinese search engine will remain available to Chinese users, but room for compromise might be reached on Google retaining its offices in China, which include engineers, sale personnel, and a small involvement in the Chinese mobile phone industry.

(Inter Press Service with additional reporting by Asia Times Online.)
26 Jan 10

China says Internet controls here to stay

Monday January 25, 2010
By Chris Buckley

BEIJING (Reuters) - China has every right to punish citizens using the Internet to challenge Communist Party power and ethnic policies, a senior official said on Monday, pressing Beijing's counter-offensive against Google Inc.

The defence of China's curbs on the Internet came nearly two weeks after the world's biggest search engine provider said it wanted to stop censoring its Chinese Google.cn website and was alarmed by online hacking attacks from within China.

The dispute has stoked friction between Beijing and Washington, two global economic heavyweights already wrestling with tensions over trade, U.S. weapons sales to Taiwan and human rights.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last week urged China and other authoritarian governments to pull down Internet censorship, drawing a sharp rebuke from Beijing.

In the latest volley, a spokesperson for China's State Council Information Office said the country "bans using the Internet to subvert state power and wreck national unity, to incite ethnic hatred and division, to promote cults and to distribute content that is pornographic, salacious, violent or terrorist".

The comments from the unnamed spokesperson showed scant room for compromise with Google and Washington on censorship policy. They were issued on the central government's website (http://www.gov.cn).

"China has an ample legal basis for punishing such harmful content, and there is no room for doubting this. This is completely different from so-called restriction of Internet freedom," the spokesperson added.

INTERNET CONTROLS

The State Council Information Office is the cabinet arm of China's propaganda apparatus, which is steered by the Communist Party, and is one of several agencies that shape Internet policy.

The latest comments from China made no direct mention of Google or Clinton.

They appeared intended to shore up the government's case that its Internet controls are for it alone to decide, and that even expression of non-violent views online can amount to a crime in China.

China has prosecuted dissidents and advocates of self-rule in Tibet who have used the Internet to challenge Communist Party policies.

Late last year the country's most prominent dissident, Liu Xiaobo, was jailed for 11 years on charges of "inciting subversion", largely through several essays he published on overseas Internet sites.

In recent days, Beijing has raised the pitch of its criticism of U.S. pressure over the Internet.

On Sunday, the People's Daily, the official mouthpiece of the Communist Party, accused the United States of exploiting social media, such as Twitter and Youtube to foment unrest in Iran.

China has blocked Youtube since March, the anniversary of uprisings in Tibet, and Twitter since June 2009, just before the 20th anniversary of a crackdown on protestors in and near Tiananmen Square. Facebook has been down since early July.

China also uses a "Great Firewall" of content filtering to deter citizens from viewing banned content on overseas sites.

(Editing by Alex Richardson)

Copyright © 2008 Reuters

Southeast Asia Web censoring widens

BANGKOK, Sept 15 — Attempts to censor the Internet are spreading to Southeast Asia as governments turn to coercion and intimidation to rein in online criticism.

Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam lack the kind of technology and financial resources that China and some other large countries use to police the Internet. The Southeast Asian nations are using other methods — also seen in China — to tamp down criticism, including arresting some bloggers and individuals posting contentious views online.

That is distressing free-speech advocates who had hoped that Southeast Asia - until recently a region where Internet use was relatively unfettered — would become a model of open debate in the developing world as its economies modernise.

Malaysia has recently used its colonial-era Internal Security Act, which allows detention for up to two years without trial, to muzzle bloggers. Thailand is ramping up its reliance on a recently introduced Computer Crimes Act to restrict criticism of its royal family and limit the spread of what the government calls seditious material. Vietnam, an authoritarian Communist state, has been arresting people caught posting thoughts that run contrary to government policy, and has detained lawyers who try to defend them.

"A number of governments in the region have discovered they can't use technology alone to block out dissent because people will always find a way around it," says Roby Alampay, executive director of a Bangkok-based media advocacy group, the Southeast Asia Press Alliance. "Instead they are trying to send out the message that the government is watching what their citizens are up to, and many of these arrests are deliberately high-profile."

To be sure, not every government in the region is trying to bolt down the Internet. Singapore, where mainstream media are largely controlled by the government, has taken a relatively hands-off approach to the Internet. The governments of Indonesia and the Philippines don't limit political content on the Internet in their countries.

The case of Raja Petra Kamarudin, Malaysia's best-known blogger, reveals a different approach. The 58-year-old prince, or raja, in one of Malaysia's royal families started his feisty Malaysia Today news Web site a decade ago after the arrest of opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim on sodomy charges, which Anwar denied. Anwar was convicted, jailed until the conviction was overturned, and is now being prosecuted again on sodomy charges, which he again is denying.

Since launching his Web site, Raja Petra has been a thorn in the side of Malaysia's ruling National Front coalition, posting a series of articles notable for their criticism of the government. In 2008, his postings led to his detention for nearly two months under the Internal Security Act.

Malaysian authorities have accused Raja Petra of suggesting in a letter to prosecutors investigating the murder of a Mongolian model in 2006 that Prime Minister Najib Razak was involved in the killing, which Najib denies. Raja Petra was charged with sedition and went into hiding. He says the charge is misdirected because he didn't publish the letter, though he admits writing it and stands by its contents.

Malaysian government spokesman Tengku Sharifuddin Tengku Ahmad declined to comment about Raja Petra's allegations, and he didn't respond to questions about the broader issues surrounding Malaysia's approach to censorship.

Malaysia's government is careful not to be seen to be directly censoring the Internet because of a longstanding pledge not to interfere online and potentially scare off foreign technology companies, such as Microsoft Corp., which operate there.

In August, Najib's government backed off from implementing Web filters similar to those used in China to weed out certain political topics and other contentious discussions. It has also considered requiring that bloggers register with the government, but decided not to implement the rule.

Instead, says Raja Petra, Malaysia's authorities are using criminal laws "to make an example of me so that others will run away from the truth," although he says their efforts will backfire. "Other bloggers are becoming more vocal and more aggressive."

Some media analysts suggest governments are catching up with the impact of the Internet and mobile-phone messaging and how they helped to trigger social upheavals in countries such as Ukraine and the Philippines. Iran's success in putting down Twitter and Facebook-driven protests this summer may have lent some indirect encouragement, too.

"Even if governments aren't censoring outright, they are providing an adequate disincentive to posting criticism. People now know there will be consequences," says Rebecca MacKinnon, a professor of journalism and media studies at the University of Hong Kong and a co-founder of GlobalVoices, an international citizens' media Web site.

In Thailand, police last month arrested two people for forwarding an audio recording in which Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva purportedly orders soldiers to attack antigovernment demonstrators. Abhisit said the recording is fake. Another Thai, Suwicha Thakor, was sentenced to 10 years in jail in June after pleading guilty to posting videos mocking Thailand's revered monarchy.

Thai government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn says the country's computer-crime laws are designed to protect people from fraud and defamation, and says the laws are at times being used to address what he describes as "national security" issues.

In recent weeks in Vietnam, meanwhile, popular blogger Bui Thanh Hieu was detained for several days after criticising the government's mining policies; another blogger, Huy Duc, was fired from his job at a Ho Chi Minh City newspaper after the Communist Party complained about his posts, while others have also been briefly detained. Yesterday, blogger Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh said in a note posted on her Web site that she is abandoning blogging after police detained her for several days after she made some critical remarks about the government. "I came to blogging as an adventure in the world of information, but every game comes to an end," Quynh said.

A Vietnamese foreign-ministry spokeswoman on Thursday said the bloggers had been detained to enable police to investigate alleged violations of national security.

Internet-freedom advocates worry that more governments beyond Southeast Asia will follow the region's lead and try to take additional steps to tighten Internet controls.

"Being blocked from visiting a Web site is frustrating," Alampay, the Bangkok-based activist, says. "But when you see or hear about people being arrested, then that could stop you from logging on at all." — Wall Street Journal

No more proxies: Myanmar Teleport

by Saw Yan Naing
Irrawaddy: Thu 29 May 2008
Technical changes have been made to prevent Internet users from using proxy
servers to get around government controls, according to an announcement from
Myanmar Teleport, one of the country's two Internet service providers
(ISPs).

In a notice to customers that was obtained by The Irrawaddy on Thursday, the
company, formerly known as Bagan CyberTech, said that it had upgraded its
service to remove the need for proxies.

"As part of this upgrade, the use of web proxies is no longer required,"
said the announcement. "Myanmar Teleport would like to cordially request you
to reconfigure your web browser settings not to use proxies."

When contacted, a technician at Myanmar Teleport confirmed that the move was
intended to tighten control over access to unauthorized Web sites.

Burma has some of the world's most restrictive Internet policies, banning
blogs and exiled news providers critical of the country's ruling junta.
However, access to prohibited Web sites is often possible through use of
proxy servers.

The upgrade was described as a measure to improve service with "more
reliable and robust equipment."

Burma has two Internet service providers-Myanmar Posts and
Telecommunications and Myanmar Teleport. Myanmar Teleport/BaganNet was
formerly owned by Ye Naing Win, the son of the ousted Prime Minister Gen
Khin Nyunt.

Web censorship fears as online journalist faces sedition charge

MALAYSIA 7 May 2008

Web censorship fears as online journalist faces sedition charge 

Reporters Without Borders today condemned the jailing of Raja Petra Kamarudin, editor of online publication Malaysia Today(http://www.malaysia-today.net/2008/) on a charge of sedition over an article on the murder of model, Altantuya Shaariibuu, implicating the deputy prime minister.

Kamarudin refused to pay a fine of 5,000 ringgit (just over 1,000 euros) and is currently being held in Sungai Buloh prison, 25 kilometres from the capital Kuala Lumpur.

Raja Petra Kamarudin, 58, nicknamed RPK, was arrested under the 1948 Sedition Act that punishes "any incitement to hatred, suspicion or contempt of any leader or government member". He faces up to three years in prison.

In his 25 April 2008 article headlined "Let's send the Altantuya murderers to hell", Kamarudin said he suspected deputy prime minister, Najib Abdul Razak, and his wife of being linked to the murder of the 28-year-old model, killed by two bullets to the head and found near Kuala Lumpur in October 2006. Najib Abdul Razak has denied Kamarudin's allegations, calling them "groundless".

"This is the first time that a blogger has been officially accused of sedition in Malaysia," the worldwide press freedom organisation said. "The authorities are using Raja Petra Kamarudin as a scapegoat. The government wants to silence online criticism. Given the state of the press, the Internet is the main space where citizens can express themselves freely. We urge the authorities to free Raja Petra Kamarudin while awaiting trial".

The authorities questioned Kamarudin about the article on 2 May, under the Communication and Multimedia Act, which provides for up to one year in prison and harsh fines for online publication of false or defamatory articles. Police have seized his computer.

Reporters Without Borders managed to speak to the online editor on 3 May, when he expressed his "anxiety" that he could go to prison for refusing to speak. "My article is political, my blog is political, Najib Razak is a politician and this murder is political", he told independent news website Malaysiakini.com.

The ministry of internal security has been using the fight against incitement to racial hatred or insulting the King, to silence dissident voices, particularly bloggers. In July 2007, Justice Minister, Nazri Abdul Aziz, said the government would not hesitate to use the Internal Security Act (ISA) to punish them. The ISA provides for two years in prison without trial for offences such as "breaching state security".

Kamarudin has come in for previous harassment from the authorities. He was arrested in 2001 while running the website Free Anwar Campaign (http://www.freeanwar.net), campaigning on behalf of deputy Anwar Ibrahim, who was sentenced to nine years in prison for organising a demonstration against corruption in Kuala Lumpur in 1998.

The Malaysian blogosphere is extremely vigorous and chiefly backs the opposition. Malaysia Today's site has received the equivalent of nearly 8,000 euros in donations in the past 24 hours following an appeal launched yesterday by his associates at the start of legal proceedings against Kamarudin.

His wife, Marina Lee, tried to visit Kamarudin today, but was not able to see him because 'RPK' had apparently waived his right to visits.

Web censorship fears as online journalist faces sedition charge

MALAYSIA 7 May 2008

Web censorship fears as online journalist faces sedition charge 

Reporters Without Borders today condemned the jailing of Raja Petra Kamarudin, editor of online publication Malaysia Today(http://www.malaysia-today.net/2008/) on a charge of sedition over an article on the murder of model, Altantuya Shaariibuu, implicating the deputy prime minister.

Kamarudin refused to pay a fine of 5,000 ringgit (just over 1,000 euros) and is currently being held in Sungai Buloh prison, 25 kilometres from the capital Kuala Lumpur.

Raja Petra Kamarudin, 58, nicknamed RPK, was arrested under the 1948 Sedition Act that punishes "any incitement to hatred, suspicion or contempt of any leader or government member". He faces up to three years in prison.

In his 25 April 2008 article headlined "Let's send the Altantuya murderers to hell", Kamarudin said he suspected deputy prime minister, Najib Abdul Razak, and his wife of being linked to the murder of the 28-year-old model, killed by two bullets to the head and found near Kuala Lumpur in October 2006. Najib Abdul Razak has denied Kamarudin's allegations, calling them "groundless".

"This is the first time that a blogger has been officially accused of sedition in Malaysia," the worldwide press freedom organisation said. "The authorities are using Raja Petra Kamarudin as a scapegoat. The government wants to silence online criticism. Given the state of the press, the Internet is the main space where citizens can express themselves freely. We urge the authorities to free Raja Petra Kamarudin while awaiting trial".

The authorities questioned Kamarudin about the article on 2 May, under the Communication and Multimedia Act, which provides for up to one year in prison and harsh fines for online publication of false or defamatory articles. Police have seized his computer.

Reporters Without Borders managed to speak to the online editor on 3 May, when he expressed his "anxiety" that he could go to prison for refusing to speak. "My article is political, my blog is political, Najib Razak is a politician and this murder is political", he told independent news website Malaysiakini.com.

The ministry of internal security has been using the fight against incitement to racial hatred or insulting the King, to silence dissident voices, particularly bloggers. In July 2007, Justice Minister, Nazri Abdul Aziz, said the government would not hesitate to use the Internal Security Act (ISA) to punish them. The ISA provides for two years in prison without trial for offences such as "breaching state security".

Kamarudin has come in for previous harassment from the authorities. He was arrested in 2001 while running the website Free Anwar Campaign (http://www.freeanwar.net), campaigning on behalf of deputy Anwar Ibrahim, who was sentenced to nine years in prison for organising a demonstration against corruption in Kuala Lumpur in 1998.

The Malaysian blogosphere is extremely vigorous and chiefly backs the opposition. Malaysia Today's site has received the equivalent of nearly 8,000 euros in donations in the past 24 hours following an appeal launched yesterday by his associates at the start of legal proceedings against Kamarudin.

His wife, Marina Lee, tried to visit Kamarudin today, but was not able to see him because 'RPK' had apparently waived his right to visits.