Akhirnya siri kartun yang dianggap "menghina Nabi" menjadi wabak ala Mc-Carthy-isme di negara kita; bermula penggantungan tanpa batas Sarawak Tribune, diikuti penggantungan Guang Ming Daily (hingga Mac) dan kini dua wartawan kanan New Straits Times diminta menyembah kerajaan.
Semua orang membeku apabila taufan fasisme bertiup kencang menerbangkan semua tiang kewarasan dan tembok kewajaran. Orang yang rasional dan berfikir tiba-tiba membisu.
Riuh debat dan protes daripada pembaca dan NGO tidak kedengaran lagi. Kaum liberal, kiri dan anasir berfikir senyap sunyi, sementara arus kanan seperti menerima durian runtuh. Kolum dan seksyen surat pembaca Malaysiakini.com, sekadar contoh, hilang serinya.
Bermulalah era, yang disebut Tariq Ramadan, 'ideologi ketakutan sejagat'.
Ketua pengarang (editor-in-chief) dan pengarang kumpulan (group editor) NST dipanggil Kementerian Keselamatan Dalam Negeri (KKDN) hari ini, lapor agensi berita Bernama.
Semua ini bermula Isnin lalu apabila akhbar berbahasa Inggeris tersebut menerbitkan satu kartun yang menyindir senario bantahan popular masyarakat Islam terhadap karikatur Jyllands-Posten, sebuah akhbar harian utama di Denmark.
Saya pernah menulis kepada Malaysiakini.com, Sabtu lepas (18 Feb), sebagai reaksi di hujung catatan teman saya Nash Rahman '2006 tahun wartawan jadi sasaran'.
Saya merungut kenapa boleh wujud ketakutan (atau, sebut sahaja 'kebekuan') di kalangan pembaca dan penulis kolum (termasuk kenyataan-kenyataan NGO?) akhbar web ini.
Teman-teman dan saya, melalui Komunite Seni Jalan Telawi (KsJT), awal-awal lagi mendukung semangat kebebasan akhbar --- dan menganggap penggantungan Sarawak Tribune dan siasatan pada editor kanannya sebagai tindakan berlebihan (over-reaction) dalam isu ini.
Sewaktu dihubungi akhbar web tersohor ini, saya telah menjelaskan bahawa menyiarkan karikatur tersebut dalam konteks menjelaskan sesuatu isu tidak boleh dianggap satu bentuk penghinaan kepada umat Islam.
Sekarang New Straits Times, satu kes yang paling lemah dan paling mudah kita pertahankan (berbanding Guang Ming Daily atau Sarawak Tribune), apakah sikap kita kali ini?
Semua orang membeku apabila taufan fasisme bertiup kencang menerbangkan semua tiang kewarasan dan tembok kewajaran. Orang yang rasional dan berfikir tiba-tiba membisu.
Riuh debat dan protes daripada pembaca dan NGO tidak kedengaran lagi. Kaum liberal, kiri dan anasir berfikir senyap sunyi, sementara arus kanan seperti menerima durian runtuh. Kolum dan seksyen surat pembaca Malaysiakini.com, sekadar contoh, hilang serinya.
Bermulalah era, yang disebut Tariq Ramadan, 'ideologi ketakutan sejagat'.
Ketua pengarang (editor-in-chief) dan pengarang kumpulan (group editor) NST dipanggil Kementerian Keselamatan Dalam Negeri (KKDN) hari ini, lapor agensi berita Bernama.
Semua ini bermula Isnin lalu apabila akhbar berbahasa Inggeris tersebut menerbitkan satu kartun yang menyindir senario bantahan popular masyarakat Islam terhadap karikatur Jyllands-Posten, sebuah akhbar harian utama di Denmark.
Saya pernah menulis kepada Malaysiakini.com, Sabtu lepas (18 Feb), sebagai reaksi di hujung catatan teman saya Nash Rahman '2006 tahun wartawan jadi sasaran'.
Saya merungut kenapa boleh wujud ketakutan (atau, sebut sahaja 'kebekuan') di kalangan pembaca dan penulis kolum (termasuk kenyataan-kenyataan NGO?) akhbar web ini.
Teman-teman dan saya, melalui Komunite Seni Jalan Telawi (KsJT), awal-awal lagi mendukung semangat kebebasan akhbar --- dan menganggap penggantungan Sarawak Tribune dan siasatan pada editor kanannya sebagai tindakan berlebihan (over-reaction) dalam isu ini.
Sewaktu dihubungi akhbar web tersohor ini, saya telah menjelaskan bahawa menyiarkan karikatur tersebut dalam konteks menjelaskan sesuatu isu tidak boleh dianggap satu bentuk penghinaan kepada umat Islam.
Sekarang New Straits Times, satu kes yang paling lemah dan paling mudah kita pertahankan (berbanding Guang Ming Daily atau Sarawak Tribune), apakah sikap kita kali ini?
+ * + * +
Bacaan saya: KKDN, atau lebih tepat beberapa pemimpin kerajaan, kurang senang dengan sikap media arus perdana yang "terlalu berani" mengkritik dan mendedahkan keburukan jentera birokrasi, termasuk polis.
Mereka hanya menunggu saat-saat yang sesuai untuk bertindak, misalnya terhadap China Press bulan lepas dan kini, NST. Kalimullah Hassan telah membongkarkan hal ini minggu lepas dalam kolumnya di akhbar berbahasa Inggeris ini.
Merujuk catatan Nash Rahman: "... kenyataan terbuka bekas ketua pengarang Kumpulan New Straits Times (Press), Datuk Kalimullah mengenai usaha Menteri Penerangan yang baru, Datuk Zainuddin Maidin, mahu dua editor tertinggi NST dipecat.
"Zainuddin dilaporkan membangkitkan perkara tersebut dalam mesyuarat biro penerangan Umno sehari sebelum beliau dilantik sebagai Menteri Penerangan yang baru menggantikan Datuk Paduka Abdul Kadir Sheikh Fadzir yang meletakkan jawatan.
"Ramai yang mempercayai, sasarannya ialah ketua pengarang Kumpulan NST yang baru, Datuk Hishammuddin Aun dan pengarang kumpulan NST, Brenden Pereira.
"Ini dipercayai berikutan laporan dalam NST yang dianggap begitu kritikal terhadap kerajaan, manakala Hishammuddin pula didakwa tidak mampu menguasai kandungan akhbar tabloid tersebut.
"Memandangkan episod ini baru bermula, maka ramai yang ternanti-nanti untuk melihatkan apakah yang bakal berlaku selepas ini."
Kalau pemimpin Umno dan pemimpin kerajaan mahu, karikatur ini telah membuka jalan yang luas terbentang untuk semua itu ...
13 comments:
ini semua mainan politik yang dangkal... PAS dan Zam (menteri penerangan) dah sama-sama bersatu hati dalam isu ini.
Tahniah PAS kerana mengukuhkan cengkaman Zam sebagai wakil mahathir yang akan menggempur Pak Lah sendiri.
Akhirnya, kartun tetap kartun, dan orang tak nampak, pelaku kezalimanlah yang akan menang, atas nama Nabi dan Islam!!!
Kalau Nabi seorang yang mulia, kemuliaannya tak kan terjejas kerana sebuah kartun!
Jadi ikut sajalah sunah Nabi; tak perlu bertindak keterlaluan
Seperti laporan The Sun hari ini (hal. 2), The Star juga melaporkan NST telah menerima surat tunjuk sebab daripada KKDN (Kementerian Keselamatan Dalam Negeri)
NST gets show cause letter over printing of cartoon
KUALA LUMPUR: The New Straits Times (NST) has been issued a show cause letter by the Internal Security Ministry to explain why action should not be taken against the publication for printing a cartoon deemed offensive to Muslims.
Its group chief editor Datuk Hishamuddin Aun confirmed that he and chief executive officer Datuk Syed Faisal Albar were summoned to the ministry, and they went there about 4.30pm yesterday.
It is learnt that they were interviewed by the ministry's secretary-general Datuk Abdul Aziz Yusof, and after the explanation was given, Hishamuddin and Syed Faisal were issued with the show cause letter.
Hishamuddin also confirmed that the newspaper had three days to reply.
Deputy Minister Datuk Mohd Johari Baharum said the editors were called to give their statements following police reports made by PAS and three non-governmental organisations on Tuesday.
“We are investigating the case and will give a complete report to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who is also the Internal Security Minister,” he told newsmen in Jitra after giving out government aid to 92 farmers whose crops were damaged by floods in December.
“The Prime Minister will decide on the action to be taken against the NST.”
On Monday, the newspaper published cartoonist Willie Miller’s caricature which showed a cartoonist doing a sketch with a poster on his side that carried words which were deemed offensive to Muslims.
The caption to the cartoon read: “Kevin finally achieves his goal to be the most feared man in the world.”
At a press conference at his office in Angkasapuri, Information Minister Datuk Zainuddin Maidin said the Cabinet at its meeting yesterday discussed the NST cartoon and that even non-Muslim ministers had expressed concern over it.
“The action of NST to re-publish a cartoon deemed to belittle the Holy Prophet on page two of its newspaper today is not wise and an uncalled-for provocation,” he said yesterday after chairing a post-Cabinet meeting.
“This was done despite the newspaper knowing fully well that there was anger among the public over its action and that police reports were lodged against the paper over the matter.”
On Wednesday, the NST had reproduced the cartoon with an editorial defending its action.
He said the newspaper, instead of calming the situation, had added fuel to the fire by reproducing the cartoon.
Zainuddin admitted that different people might interpret the cartoon in different ways, adding, however, that “not everyone could look at it intellectually”.
Recently, the Government suspended Sarawak Tribune for publishing caricatures of the Prophet which had first appeared in a Danish newspaper.
It also took firm action against Guang Ming's afternoon edition for printing a photo of people reading a newspaper with the caricatures. -- The Star
fathi, baca artikel Zainon ahmad kat The Sun ini, http://www.sun2surf.com/article.cfm?id=13025
Where there's press freedom, there is sunlight
Pak Samad: Not necessary to regulate the media
B.Suresh Ram (The Sun, 21 Feb)
PETALING JAYA: Veteran journalist Tan Sri A. Samad Ismail, 82, says it is not necessary to regulate media activities in the country in this present day.
"Everyone should be free to express and say what they think. No one with a sane mind would write to condemn the government," he added.
He added that if it was in the form of a complaint, there should be no reason to prevent the person from expressing her/himself.
The wheel-chair bound Samad, more affectionately known as Pak Samad, spoke to reporters after a courtesy call on him by Information Minister Datuk Zainuddin Maidin in his residence here on Feb 21, 2006.
Pak Samad began his journalism career with Utusan Melayu in 1940 before moving to become the Editor of Berita Harian in 1958, and four years later was made the deputy Editor-In-Chief of the New Straits Times (NST).
He was the editorial adviser of the NST from 1982 to 1988 and in 2000 he served as the editorial consultant of NST Press (M) Bhd for a year.
Asked to compare press freedom today with pre-Independence days, Pak Samad said: "There's not much difference.
"Absolute press freedom never existed in the country, be at present or at the time when I was a journalist.
"There is no press freedom ... even in those days there was no press freedom. There is press freedom to publish news but not to publish things according to anyone's whims and fancies.
"But sometimes people become phantoms of their own .. .scared of their own shadows,."
H lamented that the current media generation faced too much self censorship.
"Sometimes the fear is unfounded," he added.
Asked to relate his experiance when faced with making a decision whether to run a story or not, Pak Samad said: "I bantai saja" ( I write as I please).
"Whatever I can publish, I publish but at that time I was close to many top people...so they close one eye when I run a critical story," he said, adding that the status of the local media could be summed up with one word - "dull".
"The media today tend to sensationalise negative issues such as fights between Malays and Chinese community and not the positive aspect.
"They hardly highlight when a Malay and Chinese are holding hands," he said.
Pak Samad said many exciting things are happening but they are not reported.
Citing an example, he said: "The situation in Terengganu now ... we can write about the changes there, compare it with how the state was under PAS and now."
Updated: 07:02PM Tue, 21 Feb 2006
Berita The Sun hari ini membocorkan beberapa hal yang tidak dilaporkan oleh sebarang agensi berita atau akhbar yang lain.
Untuk penilaian anda, saya salin kembali tujuh perenggan awal (dua perenggan terakhir tidak dimasukkan sebab kurang relevan dan tidak menarik):
NST gets show-cause letter
PUTRAJAYA: The Internal Security Ministry yesterday issued a show-cause letter to The New Straits Times (NST) over the publication of a cartoon which poked fun at the Prophet Muhammad caricature controversy.
Sources said NST Group editor-in-chief Datuk Hishamuddin Aun was summoned to the ministry where the letter was handed to him.
Sources also said the issue was discussed at yesterday's cabinet meeting which was chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.
They said several Umno ministers, including Information Minister Datuk Zainuddin Maidin and Foreign Minister Datuk Syed Hamid Albar attacked the NST and wanted action to be taken.
It is learnt that the ministers criticised the NST not only over the cartoon strip but also raised previous articles published by the newspaper.
Sources said some other ministers, including Entrepreneur Development Minister Datuk Khaled Noordin, Minister in the Prime Minister Department Datuk Nazri Aziz and Works Minister Datuk Seri S Samy Vellu, did not think that what NST did was that serious to warrant any action.
The NST, in an article yesterday, said the cartoon strip concerned, which appeared in a regular cartoon strip section, did not carry any caricature of the Prophet and neither did it mock Islam.
NST memang benar-benar "melawan" satu proses pembodohan yang sedang berkembang saat ini ...
THE GOVERNMENT SAYS:
SHOW CAUSE
KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 22:
----------------------------------
One of the region’s oldest newspapers, the New Straits Times, may face action over a comic strip it published last Monday. The newspaper today received a show-cause letter from the Internal Security Ministry over a Non Sequitur cartoon by Wiley Miller, which took a wry view of the controversy surrounding the Prophet Muhammad caricatures first published last year by a Danish newspaper.
The NST has three days to give reasons in writing why action should not be taken against it for publishing the cartoon in the newspaper’s Life & Times section.
The ministry said the cartoon had breached the conditions of the newspaper’s publishing permit under the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984.
It added that the sketch was inappropriate and could invite negative reactions in the country, especially among Muslims.
The New Straits Times Press (M) Bhd chief executive officer Datuk Syed Faisal Albar and group editor-in-chief Datuk Hishamuddin Aun today met senior Internal Security Ministry officials in Putrajaya and explained to them the newspaper’s work process.
Ministry officials also wanted to know the newspaper’s rationale for publishing the cartoon.
"The matter is in the hands of the authorities," Hishamuddin said. "Everyone should allow the law to take its course."
The Non Sequitur strip shows a street artist sitting on a chair next to a sign reading: "Caricatures of Muhammad While You Wait!" A boxed caption reads: "Kevin finally achieves his goal to be the most feared man in the world."
The NST reprinted the cartoon today alongside an editorial asking the people and Government to judge if it was really offensive.
The show-cause letter was the Government’s emphatic reply.
Lihat pula rencana pengarang NST hari ini:
HARD COPY: Real life and freedom of expression
By: Syed Nadzri
Feb 23:
---------------------------------------
EVENTS of late have served to confirm that freedom of expression is all in the mind. In reality, there’s no such thing.
Blasphemous cartoons, Internet censorship, government eavesdropping, movie bans, newspaper suspension, and the sacking and resignation of editors all provide us with the stark reminder that freedom of expression and, by extension, Press freedom, is championed only when it suits us. When it doesn’t, we come up with clever justifications for its repudiation.
Take the American spy programme promoted by President George W. Bush. It allows the National Security Agency to intercept domestic communications — whether telephone or email — without a warrant.
The rationale? The fight against terror. The target: al-Qaeda operatives inside and outside the country.
The Bush administration has justified this by citing a post-9/11 law that authorised the president to use force against al-Qaeda. But what is not made clear is how they would deal with the prospect of abuse — such as eavesdropping on other kinds of conversations not related at all to terrorism.
Not only that, Bush later bemoaned the fact that the scheme had been leaked out and blamed the Press for exposing the story. He ordered the Justice Department to open an investigation.
"The fact that somebody leaked this programme causes great harm to the United States," Bush reportedly said. "There is an enemy out there. They read newspapers."
Notice two clear instances of threat against freedom of expression above — one, the eavesdropping on phone calls and emails and the other, the order to act against the media which were doing their job. They come from none other than the country which has moved to bring "freedom" to others.
But then that’s also where they make movies about homosexual cowboys, which will never be shown in some countries — hence reinforcing the earlier statement that freedom of expression is good only when it suits us.
Even with its spy programme very much debated, the US was quick to criticise China’s Internet censorship policy, ironically calling this a blot on freedom of expression.
China announced about four months ago a further expansion to its control of mass communication by authorising the monitoring of cell phone text messages, email lists, blogs and chat rooms.
This was in addition to the ban on news sites deemed to incite illegal assemblies and promote activities on behalf of illegal civil groups. The other restrictions, largely unchanged when guidelines were introduced in 2000, include bans on rumours, pornography and defamatory statements.
The Chinese Government employs about 30,000 technical experts as the Internet police, also called Big Mamas who monitor Internet cafes and filter code in sites, emails, bulletin boards, blogs and chat rooms.
Beijing has, of course, justified the need to maintain order and prevent political uprisings.
Pointing to the 74,000 major protests on a variety of issues that occurred nationwide in 2004, the Chinese Government said it was acting on potential dangers from cell phone text messages since "cell phones were successfully used to organise anti-Japanese protests in April".
Apart from that, we have, of course, seen the fallout from the blasphemous caricatures of Pro- phet Muhammad that provoked angry reactions in so many parts of the world.
The attempt by some quarters to plead freedom of expression to justify publication of the caricatures was torn to shreds by the sheer magnitude of outrage. Such freedom should never be allowed in the first place.
Several newspapers and editors around the world were among the casualties from the above episode, including Malaysia.
The induced resignation of editors, however, is nothing new in this country. In fact, it’s nothing new in the other parts of the world perceived to profess a freer environment. And therefore it lends further weight to the basic argument that there is no such thing as freedom of expression.
A fortnight ago, for instance, the editorial staff of the weekly New York Press walked out en masse after the paper’s publishers ordered the provocative caricatures to be pulled out just as the paper was set on reproducing it.
Another example is the resignation of CNN chief news executive Eason Jordan last year amid a furore over remarks he made about journalists killed by the US military in Iraq.
Jordan said he was quitting to avoid CNN being "unfairly tarnished" by the controversy.
And then of course there were the celebrated cases of Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan and CBS news anchor Dan Rather.
Morgan was sacked as editor of the top-selling British tabloid two years ago for publishing fake pictures of British soldiers torturing Iraqi prisoners while celebrity TV personality Rather quit last year amid a continuing fallout over a report that used apparent forgeries to attack Bush during the 2004 election.
What I am trying to get at by giving the above examples is simple: Freedom of expression is fictitious because often the very people who talk and preach about it can simply turn around and act to the contrary if and when it suits them.
And here we are griping at why Madonna’s performance was struck off Malaysian television broadcasts of the Grammy Awards last week. Was it because of her skimpy outfit and steamy dance moves? Was she considered too risque for audiences, hence the need to curb freedom of expression? Probably so, although we have come across worse scenes on the daily music channels.
But then again, that’s the way it is.
Apa kata Tun Dr M?
PUTRAJAYA, Feb 23 (Bernama) Former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said today that the editor of the New Straits Times should be suspended for "two to three months" for publishing twice a comic strip linked to the controversy over the Prophet Muhammad caricatures.
"Although the newspaper is not suspended, the editor should be suspended. Because one can see that when he prints it, he doesn't understand the feelings of the Muslims," he told reporters here.
Dr Mahahir said by taking action against the newspaper, the government would drive home the point that if a media organisation did something wrong, they would not escape from being punished.
---MORE
Fathi...sekali lagi, apa yg kita semua akan berhadapan dgn adalah 'manusia'. Macam mana bagus sekali pun undang2 dibuat atau perlembagaan ditubuhkan, jika yg mengelolakannya tidak bijaksana, semuanya akan kembali ke tempat yg sama...Penat rasanya berhadapan dgn org2 yg sebegini...
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