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To commemorate World Press Freedom Day, the Centre for Independent Journalism released a report on the economic rights of journalists in Malaysia, arguing that the challenges facing journalism today are not just political or legal, but increasingly economic. How does this link to press freedom and democratic health? On this episode of #ConsiderThis Melisa Idris speaks with Cynthia Lorraine Silva, Media Plurality Programme Officer for the Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ) and one of the co-authors of the report.
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00:10hello and good evening i'm melissa idris welcome to consider this this is the show where we want
00:15you to consider and then reconsider what you know of the news of the day to commemorate world press
00:20freedom day the center for independent journalism released a report on the economic rights of
00:26journalists in malaysia arguing that the challenges facing journalism today are not just political or
00:33legal but increasingly economic so how does this all link to press freedom and democratic health
00:40well let's ask our guest today cynthia lorraine silver who is the media plurality program officer
00:47at the center for independent journalism or cij and she's one of the co-authors of the report cynthia
00:53thank you so much for joining me on the show today it's good to have you so this um this
00:57is cij's
00:57annual reports on the media landscape right this year it's titled the price of truth i'm quite
01:03curious to know why the cij decided to focus um specifically on economic security of journalists
01:10and also how does this tie into press freedom why is this a press freedom issue well melissa besides
01:19the fact that we talk about the legal issues and the political pressures um every week um and how it
01:25impacts the media i think this time around actually for as long as i've been in cij my first like
01:32some
01:33of my first few colleagues were either ex-media or media um you know workers or practitioners and
01:40they were all telling me you get whispers right i mean i don't think i need to tell you all
01:44the things that
01:45people say to each other in the industry about working conditions or even when you speak to media
01:50owners which we do uh obviously like when we're also on the board we have a representative from the
01:55board of the media council and obviously we have friends um in in all in several you know levels in
02:02the
02:04industry it's just very obvious that a really really big pressure is the economics of it all and
02:12basically how much you know how profitable you know the industry is and it's not just malaysia it's not
02:19just southeast asia even though it very much hits the global south southeast asian media in a very
02:25specific way um but we also want to acknowledge the fact that this is a problem that's happening globally
02:31when we talk to even global media or you know anyone who works on um media issues uh across the
02:37world
02:38they will all tell us the same thing um which is that you know it's very hard it's very hard
02:43to
02:43survive and in this issue comes the you know the lens that we applied here and and i will acknowledge
02:51that this is really just the beginning of our conversation about this so this report shall i say is
02:57a preliminary step for us so we looked at basically right now we looked at the lens um the of
03:04the workers
03:04you know the people who are not really management but the people who are nonetheless very very much
03:10instrumental to the work in fact they do the work um and you know how it impacts them and the
03:16ways
03:16that all of these pressures impact the media practitioners journalists on the ground people
03:23who are on the ground then translates into a very real um situation where you know there's censorship or
03:31people who are just too overworked they're running after you know certain kpis they're running after
03:39certain things and just to survive so understandable it's it's all survival here um but it's very
03:45difficult for them and then it impacts you know because everyone likes to ask journalists oh why
03:49is ethical journalism such an issue just write properly you know um so we decided to look at one of
03:55the
03:56reasons um that are some of the reasons that really really impact um the quality of reporting how it
04:01impacts their freedom of expression and also the larger media freedom press freedom within this country
04:07so there's really a lot a lot to uncover here and this is really just first of all we spoke
04:13to
04:14several respondents um and of course i would have loved to speak to more people um to kind of garner
04:20the
04:22um responses in this part and basically to get a better view um you know i think our next steps
04:28it
04:28would be really great to kind of speak to media owners even to see where the struggle is with them
04:33right because it's everyone is trying their best understandably but it is difficult and right now we
04:39could not cover even all the newsrooms uh let's see in KL or client valley but you want to look
04:44at how it's
04:45multifaceted how it's intersectional you know like in independent media um not based in KL all media
04:52based in KL state-owned media and different places their branches are also different right the way that
04:58it operates let's say in sabah sarawak um but i really want to highlight the fact that it's also very
05:03i want to express my gratitude to some media uh practitioners and um the sabah and sarawak journalist
05:11associations um because they have uh parts of the report and they've written excerpt and i think
05:17it's very interesting very interesting read um and it's really just the beginning of the conversation
05:22we really really need to bridge this gap and uh yeah yeah okay so so you mentioned that from what
05:28you
05:29have discovered it was quite concerning can you elaborate further cynthia what were uh some of the most
05:35alarming uh findings that emerged from the report yeah we were looking at several factors so uh first of all
05:41it's it's certain things like within the newsroom we all see uh the issue on wages on um working
05:48conditions you know how overworked many journalists are um and also kind of how it then translates to
05:55them you know how much can they innovate with their work as well and um yeah so wages is a
06:02big issue
06:02you'll notice uh i'm pretty sure it's on page 15 of the report uh we have a little table and
06:09this is
06:09only a few only a few um respondents uh who were willing to disclose what they earned uh we knew
06:16some
06:17people based in sabah um who have worked for like 18 years and um they earned 2k a month um
06:27yeah so this
06:28is obviously minus allowances but the allowances were not obviously not uh even sufficient right for the
06:34amount of time that they've worked as well and they've served um and we also want to highlight
06:39certain issues like security when you're out on the job you know obviously this is a very real issue
06:45and journalists just have a risky job they just are sent out to cover especially in you know the events
06:51of floods natural disasters even in sabah you know when they had uh um certain conflicts that happened
06:59uh in the area so again very interesting read at the end of the report uh towards the end of
07:04the report
07:04but yeah so we have also highlighted certain discriminatory practices and workplace abuses
07:09um especially sexual harassment which is very much a thing but obviously we don't hear about it
07:15we don't hear reports we don't hear you know first of all um in some organizations and i really want
07:21to highlight the fact that there are media organizations companies that have very very good practices and i'm
07:28really hoping they would be willing to share these bad practices to help their colleagues in these
07:35other you know organizations because it is a struggle to say the least sexual harassment is a very very
07:42very big deal um but the number of people who go silence i mean just to talk about it i
07:47mean you want
07:48to talk about within this industry in any industry in any place that we are as as anyone who is
07:55um a survivor um it's very difficult to open up and to talk about this so in a professional setting
08:02it's even harder hr policies may not always be you know um adequate uh and so where's our whistleblower
08:10protection as well uh and who can then step in and address those issues so we've seen this in the
08:18newsroom
08:19we've seen this when people are sent out to work um you know the physical but also legal uh safety
08:26of
08:26these journalists so we have cracked down to have people getting arrested uh you know very regularly
08:32um so all of this is just you know it's a censorship uh issue right so eventually people are afraid
08:38um it's sure it's intimidation legal intimidation and it's external pressures but also people just tend to go and
08:45self-sensors themselves which is something that we've noted um from our colleagues in sarawak because
08:51there was initially you know um this practice before about you know where stories are killed
08:58and censored but later on they've learned to self-sensor in many many industries of course again
09:05this is not like it would be great if we could encompass the entire landscape um and each and every
09:11organization it would have been great but these are definitely issues that we've highlighted and
09:16you know um sorry jumping here very quickly cynthia i that's why i um really appreciated the cij report
09:23because you linked economic pressure to self-censorship to editorial compromise and i wanted to talk about
09:30that because you also talked about economic insecurity linking to democratic health uh and this is i guess
09:36why the public should care about journalists working conditions can we talk about the legal and
09:42political pressure that journalists are under are are journalists based on your findings adequately
09:48protected from legal and political pressure today no to put it simply no uh the fact is it shouldn't
09:55happen you have a self-regulatory body right now um which is the media council it is supposed to serve
10:01its purposes it has a working and functional uh complaints mechanism but still we see crackdowns
10:07especially this year and if you notice since last year they've done this new trend uh where the whole
10:12ministry is now using the printing presses and publications act to investigate media and we've seen
10:16this in certain issues um last year and this year which has never happened before and the fact is you
10:23know it's always mcmc coming in it's always you know the ministry of comms but now we see an expansion
10:27of
10:28that power over the media from the whole ministry so this is you know just police intimidation as well
10:34it's it's a real threat uh to to the media right now it's a crackdown it's a crackdown to say
10:39it very
10:39simply right so and coming up from the report what are the recommendations what reforms does the cij um
10:47think are the most important if we actually want to see a healthier media landscape yeah i think uh first
10:55of all acknowledge that this is a problem uh we all have to acknowledge that this is a problem and
11:00this
11:00is our responsibility even as a cij we have to step in we have to figure out what role we
11:05can play um i
11:06think that this is where again the media um councils complaints mechanism can really kick into you know
11:12gear um which is where people should start identifying ways uh you know to kind of um seek address for
11:22these
11:22issues outside of their newsrooms but also within the newsrooms um actually we want to talk i want
11:27to specifically mention unionization which has been a problem uh yeah in several states um but actually
11:33it should not be a problem because you are covered under federal law so everyone should be entitled
11:38everyone is it is your right to unionize yeah so um yeah if you notice like collective agreements the
11:45star had a pretty decent collective agreement recently and we'd just like to acknowledge that this is the
11:50kind of practice where you should unionize you should claim your rights within um your newsrooms
11:56but also i think this is really where editors can come to the table and we can talk about ways
12:02to kind
12:02of you know because it's also the digital shift right this is the big issue the digital shift is really
12:08hitting us economically um so it's it's hard it's survival so how can we then support and the government
12:14and also like promise a 30 million dana innovation media dana innovation media yeah um it's a fun but
12:21you know instead of then dishing it out and only to license media which is a bit tricky because it's
12:27another method of potential censorship you know uh we suggest just give it to uh you know funnel it through
12:35um a self-regulatory independent body such as the media council yeah yeah i'm gonna have to stop us
12:45there cynthia we've run out of time for this segment but thank you so much for your time and sharing
12:50the
12:51insights from your report cynthia lorraine silver there from the center for independent journalism uh wrapping up
12:58this segment we'll be right back after this with more on this and hopefully we'll get to speak to someone
13:03who's on the malaysian media council we'll be back after these messages stay tuned
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