Online Journalism is dangerous to Malaysian multi-ethnic society

Nowadays, the world is being enhanced with advancement of technological devices. So does the media. Since the new media has grown from the past few years, online media such as online newspaper, blogs, social networking sites (facebook, twitter, instagram) and et cetera has been introduced.

            Malaysia as a developing country is also included among the countries with new media development. We could not deny that the new media has made a major contribution towards our country in terms of delivering the messages. Thousands of news sources are being established in the new media from time to time.

            The new media are closely related to the online journalism. In Malaysia, we have newspapers of Utusan Malaysia, Sinar Harian, Berita Harian, Metro, The Star, Harakah and many else. With the globalization of the new media, they had constructed their own online newspaper and have been a hit to the audience across the country. Apparently, most of them follow the rules and ethics of a journalist as a official news provider.

            Unfortunately, the rise of unofficial and unaccredited reporters also hits the online journalism. There are many private blogs, news journals and social networking accounts that are trying to act as the approved journalist. This has been a major issue in online journalism with negative effects towards the society and country.

            There are many cases involving these groups that threaten the peace and harmony of Malaysia. Once before, the case of the sex-blogger Alvin and Vivian that creates sexually explicit content blog and humiliate the Muslims by publishing their picture of having ‘Bak Kut Teh’ (Pork-meat teh) with the message of ‘Selamat Berbuka Puasa’ (Happy Breaking the Fast).

            This case had clearly brings hatred by Muslims toward the individuals and has been a controversial issue of online media at the time. The tensions arise between the Malays and Chinese. Of course, it threatens the Malaysian multi-ethnic society that consists of Malay, Chinese, Indian, Javanese, and not forget, the Sabahan and Sarawakian multi-ethnic society.

            Therefore, the gatekeepers play important roles of monitoring and controlling the media freedom in Malaysia to avoid any controversial case happens again. Although we cannot wholly control the new media, but at least the gatekeepers are preventing any cases that threat Malaysian peace and harmony.