theSun | WEDNESDAY AUGUST 5 2009
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speak up!
Sex, sensationalism and salacious reports
Comment
by Jacqueline Ann Surin
THE MEDIA are at it again. Sensation-
alising the news, reporting inaccurately
and unfairly, and worst of all, having
no regard for the personal damage a
report may have on a party.
The latest of irresponsible and un-
ethical reporting was in Kosmo!’s July
27 edition that front-paged celebrated
filmmaker Yasmin Ahmad who passed
away from a stroke the day before. The
story in itself had a journalistic logic to
it. It was for a section called Di Sebalik
Berita. It interviewed people who knew
Yasmin previously, in another life. It
described who she was before she
became an acclaimed, award-winning
film maker.
Mind you, the Kosmo! reporting
was even more rigorous than what
entertainment magazine Mangga
Online attempted to do to disclose the
same information it had about Yasmin.
So, what was the problem with the
Kosmo! report?
The problem wasn’t the lack of
journalistic rigour or even shortage of
empathy involved, as one protest letter
against the Kosmo! report pointed out.
The problem was the lack of journalistic
ethics involved in both the Kosmo! and
the Mangga Online reports.
But should we be surprised? No,
and yes.
No, because media companies
understand what sells. As two former
editors have reminded me before, “Sex
sells!” So, for guaranteed sales and
profits, sensationalism, salacious re-
ports, sex, sexy women, and scandals
will all work on any given day.
Media companies, like any other en-
terprise, need to be profitable in order
to, at the very least, stay afloat. And
if sex and scandal sell, and we know
they do, it shouldn’t be surprising that
Kosmo! and Mangga did the kind of
reports they did on Yasmin.
What is appalling is that in some
media’s pursuit of profit, under the
guise of rigorous journalism, editors
remain oblivious or uncaring about the
impact of their reporting. Not just on
someone who has already died, and
hence has no right of reply, but on her
family.
Commendably, Kosmo! issued a
front-page apology to Yasmin’s family
on July 30. But that doesn’t negate the
argument that its unnecessary exposé
of Yasmin’s identity could have been
avoided if the newsroom was guided
by the principles of ethical reporting.
Mind you, the reporting on Yasmin
aren’t the only instances of unethical
reporting that has taken place over the
past few weeks.
On July 8, two Catholics lodged a
TELLING IT AS IT IS
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police report against Al Islam magazine
for going undercover at a Catholic
mass and partaking of the holy com-
munion for an “investigative” report
about Muslims purportedly converting
to Christianity. The Catholic community
was understandably outraged, as were
several Muslims, at the lack of ethics
demonstrated by Al Islam.
And then on July 20, Bernama
revealed that a Harian Metro report,
headlined “Restoran Berahi”, about an
erotic restaurant, was fabricated by
two reporters who were subsequently
called in by the police to be questioned
under Section 8(A) of the Printing
Presses and Publications Act (PPPA).
On the very same day, Tamil-lan-
guage newspaper Makkal Osai ran a
report about the launch of the Human
Rights Party by Hindraf leader P. Uthay-
akumar which has been described as
“false and malicious”.
That’s quite a few unethical reports
in such a short span of time. Which is
really troubling. And surprising consid-
ering that every time the government
tries to justify having media repressive
laws such as the PPPA, they say that
it’s to ensure the media report fairly
and responsibly.
Quite apart from the inappropriate-
ness of treating unethical reporting as
a crime against the state, these recent
examples demonstrate that having
media repressive laws isn’t really the
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solution, is it? Additionally, we know
that these recent examples are not the
only instances where sensationalist
and irresponsible reporting have oc-
curred in Malaysia.
What does this tell us? It tells us
that despite these laws to control the
media, the media can’t be stopped
from reporting unethically whether
it’s on women, religion, transsexuals, a
political party or any other issue.
In any case, how would the PPPA
resolve an issue of unethical reporting
such as the articles published by Ko-
smo! and Mangga Online? And should
law enforcement be tasked with ensur-
ing that professional codes of ethics
are adhered to?
These examples show that media
repressive laws don’t serve the func-
tion the government claims they do.
These laws only ensure that the media
cannot report fearlessly and independ-
ently on vested political interest and
power. And ironically, that is exactly
what prevents the media from report-
ing responsibly.
The truth is, so long as the media
in Malaysia choose not to adopt a
code of ethics to demonstrate their
commitment to responsible, fair and
ethical reporting, citizens can expect
more of the kind of reporting we’ve
seen in recent weeks. Profits alone will
be motivation enough, especially if the
media know they can get away with
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what they’ve done without being held
accountable. Indeed, for that reason
alone, the protest letter by journalists
and former journalists against Kosmo!
is an important gesture – it is one way
for media practitioners to hold their
peers in Kosmo! to account.
But is that enough? As a media
professional, I believe that we can only
be held accountable through a code of
journalistic ethics. Other internation-
ally-recognised media around the
world voluntarily adopt these codes.
Why shouldn’t we?
If only we would, then those who
don’t uphold such ethical codes would
be shamed, lose credibility and le-
gitimacy, and be taken to task by their
professional peers and the public.
At the end of the day, protesting
against Kosmo! shouldn’t just be about
Yasmin and her family. It should be
about upholding journalistic principles
and public interest. But that can re-
ally only happen if media practitioners,
the government and the public care
enough about what really is at stake.
Jacqueline Ann Surin, editor of news site
www.thenutgraph.com, believes it is in
the media’s interest to adopt a code of
ethics to ensure continued credibility.
The report first appeared under the title
“Kosmo!’s offence”. Comment: letters@
thesundaily.com.