Musang Aman Tells Media To Disseminate Truth!

Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman has reminded the media to disseminate the truth and play a responsible role in serving the community.

He said they should not just get the story first but also get the facts right and write with less sensationalism.

"The preoccupation with sensationalism disregards the need to seek the truth and discharges fair reporting. I know you have your chief editors to answer to and deadlines to meet as well as chase after the latest scoops and I am also aware you are competing with the increasingly popular news portals and blog sites," he said at the Kinabalu Shell Press Awards presentation here Saturday night.

Musa reminded the mainstream media not to abandon their standards and values and he hoped that they would not resort to the tactics of bloggers.

"It is often said that public enlightenment is the forerunner of justice and foundation of democracy. The duty of the journalist is to further those ends by seeking the truth and providing fair and comprehensive accounts of events and issues," he said.

Musa also urged the media to promote the government's sound practices in its development efforts.

"We ask you to enlighten the public on the positive initiatives undertaken by the government and some of its success stories," he said, adding that the government understood the media's need to highlight problems, complaints and injustices.

Musa also said that the local media could go a long way in shaping not just the image of the state to Malaysians but also to the world in this era of information and communication technology. He said the government's various development efforts should not just be made known to the Malaysian people but should also be shared with the rest of the world. (Bernama)

***** Basically what the musang is saying is, "print what we the pemimpin tell you is the 'truth' and don't think for yourselves. And please don't try to out-blog the blogs by whacking us to kingdom come. Promote us and our 'actions' without question and your duty as journalists will be considered done."

If the mainstream media had the guts to write and reveal only the truth, lots of pemimpin in the musang's category would be forever attending court cases or cooling their heels in prison.
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