RECENTLY , an editor wrote an article that started with him telling his readers (including this scribe) of a midnight telephone call from Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to congratulate him on his appointment as group editor-in-chief. The Prime Minister, said the writer, had asked him to make his newspaper ‘a credible and professional newspaper’.
If Abdullah had been correctly reported, then the impression I get (I may be wrong) is that this particular newspaper, despite being the oldest in the country, had been, until that telephone call in 2003, neither credible nor professional. If that was what the Prime Minister had said, it’s his right. The Prime Minister is entitled to his views as much as we are to ours. This is what being free and democratic is all about.
Then, the writer told us of yet another Prime Ministerial telephone call a few months later, this time in the evening. According to him, the Prime Minister wanted to know what he (the editor) thought of his (the Prime Minister’s) speech at the opening of an Organisation of Islamic Conference meeting on the
The editor told us that he told the Prime Minister that ‘it was a good speech’. Then, the editor told us, he (the Prime Minister) made a request: ‘I know you have many important stories but if possible, I hope you can use my comments as one of the stories on Page 1.’ Then, he told us that he joked with the Prime Minister. He told us that he said: ‘Sir, you are the PM. You want it on Page 1, you will get it on Page 1.’
Then, the editor told us that the Prime Minister told him: ‘No, no. I know you have other important stories. But I hope you can also use this story.’ Then, we were told that the only other time the Prime Minister called him was to express concern about explicit stories like the Norita Samsudin murder trial being ‘played out’ in lurid details (in the newspapers). I have no problem with editors, writers and journalists being a telephone call away from the Prime Minister or are so close to him that they can tell a joke or two.
Everybody knows that Abdullah is a nice, friendly person. But what bothers me is the impression these kinds of reports create. For example, it gives the impression that the Prime Minister is reduced to making telephone calls to newspaper editors to get feedback on his speeches and statements, and to ask for Page 1 displays and prime-time TV coverage. More fundamentally, it gives the impression that ‘what the Prime Minister wants the Prime Minister gets’. Yet, editors and media owners time and time again claim that there is no official interference and that they are free to report whatever they like and in the manner they wish.
And what has happened to the Prime Minister’s communications team, his press secretaries and press officers – isn’t it their responsibility to liaise with the Press on his behalf? I think the Prime Minister should be spared the hassle of contacting the Press himself so that he can devote his valuable time to serving the people.
Even if he did, should it be told to the whole wide world? Or am I being nostalgic of the time when one of the golden rules of journalism was protecting one’s source of information? Also, maybe, in the past, editors were not powerful and influential enough to warrant Prime Ministers to make personal telephone calls to them.
And when the cartoon issues exploded in Jalan Riong, there are so many corners fight, namely, Hishamuddin Aun, Zam (Min. of Info), A. Kadir Jasin, Jeff Ooi and who else? of course, our beloved former PM, Uncle Tun.
So what's next?
