Over the past few years, I noted diverse editorial policies on treatments of local news by the local Chinese and English dailies. This has been a mind-boggling phenomenon. Out of curiosity, I raised it to the reporters of the English dailies. Probably too hot to handle, they just shoved it aside, saying it was a policy matter.All the local Chinese dailies have very extensive coverage of Sibu local news, whereas the English dailies are scanty on this aspect. This makes English dailies stand aloof from the Chinese community, rendering them much less readable as a result.
It is now almost a norm that the English dailies are missed out in the Chinese community functions, this is as a result of knowing very well that the events are lowly prioritised in their news reporting.
I had thought of subscribing to local English dailies for personal reading but gave up due to their skimpy coverage on Sibu news.
BP used to be impressive in news on Sibu. The last few years saw quite a dramatic shift in its policy which is a dismay.
I had high expections when ET was first launched, thinking it might fill up the vacuum. But it turned out to be not much better off.
Take the recent outroar over the exorbitant fees on land renewal which took the headlines in the Chinese dailies. But our dear local English dailies were mute on this burning issue affecting land owners.
By giving some priority to local news is one way for the English dailies to build inroad into the Sibu Chinese community.
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6 comments:
I wonder if it is because the white hair may read English papers, and the editor may run into problem. Newspapers that serve only masters will not survive. It is also wrong for the master to control the media. Nowadays we have so much better information from the web that are freely available.
Ask Kalimullah.He's filtering out only the good news about the lame duck PM Abdullah the son of Badawi.
We won't have free press unless and until all those repressive laws are abolished.The local press are in a dilemma, difficult to please both the readers and the masters.
anonymous, daniel, rubberseeds, the local press has to be close to the public. Seriously, we have too many official trumpets already.
i have stopped my prescription to the Borneo Post. Some of the editorials r beyond belief
bengbeng, you are shocking me!
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