Newly Renovated with RM52.7 mil Puduraya Bus Terminal Leaking

Newly Renovated with RM 52.7 facelift Puduraya Bus Terminal Leaking

The 36-year-old Puduraya Bus Terminal was opened on 16 April 2011 after undergoing massive renovations costing RM52.7mil.

The opening was delayed several times due to additional work on the base of the building.

On Monday 9 April 2011, water was found to leaking from the roof of the newly renovated Puduraya Bus Terminal, however The Star newpaper reported on May 12, 2011 that "Puduraya is not leaking"

Refer the link to The Star news reporting on May 12, 2011

http://thestar.com.my/metro/story.asp?file=/2011/5/12/central/8662574&sec=central

The 33-second footage recorded by a passenger on Monday evening was posted on Facebook.

It showed two sprinkler system with water gushing out.
Two garbage bins were used to contain the water.
The footage posted in the social networking site Facebook and Twitter sparked a myriad of reactions ranging from amusement to anger and sarcasm.

The footage of the video posted in the Facebook is posted for the reader to view and decide for themself whether there is a water leakage or not.

Why no action against irresponsible reporting?

Why no action against irresponsible reporting?
May 12, 2011-->May 12, 2011
FMT LETTER
Wong Chee Fui

Utusan Malaysia’s report of a presumed plot of Christianity usurping the place of Islam in the constitution has stirred volatile and ugly emotions. The report that appeared on its front page on May 7 is provocative and is likely to spark racial tensions.

As a mainstream national paper, it is highly irresponsible for Utusan to publish the article without fact-checking the source of the news.

The article does not offer any evidence of facts except for references to postings by bloggers, which does not appear to have been independently verified.

Quoting from a blog is a dangerous, if permitted, any rumour can be posted in any blog by anyone and subsequently used as a reference source for publication in mainstream media.

The fact that Utusan published an unverified article has been is ignored by the auhorities despite numerous police reports against it.

Instead of questioning Utusan over the article, the immediate response from the home minister was to order investigation.

The police were quick to launch an investigation based on a newspaper report without first investigating the authenticity of the report.

They seem to favour the irresponsible party whose unverified report have caused fear and instigated hatred.

The government hasn’t moved to take action against the paper, even when it has repeatedly published articles in the past that can destabilise the racial harmony in this country.

Utusan continues to act with impurity and enjoy a status that is perceived to be above the law. The government must swiftly reign in the paper.

Hata (Ex-Jounalist) : Utusan Malaysia Behind the print (Why it will never be investigated)

Utusan Malaysia: Behind the print
Free Malaysia Today
Stephanie Sta Maria
May 11, 2011-->May 11, 2011

*********************************************************************************
Utusan Malaysia's former senior journalist explains why the paper will never be investigated and why Malaysians should take it seriously.
*********************************************************************************


KUALA LUMPUR: Many uncomplimentary descriptions have been accorded to Utusan Malaysia. The more common of those include “irresponsible”, “mischievous ” and “dangerous”. Of that trio, Utusan Malaysia’s former senior journalist, Hata Wahari, says that the third is dead-on.

The mainstream media, for as long as they pander to the government, enjoy immunity from public prosecution. But Utusan Malaysia has earned a special place within this untouchable clique simply by the virtue of being owned by Umno.

This privilege has spawned relentless attacks on the opposition and increasingly frequent inflammatory reports on race and religion. But while most urbanites can see right through
Utusan Malaysia’s thinly-veiled propaganda, its rural readership remains staunch believers. For this reason alone, Hata warned that giving Utusan Malaysia the brush-off would be a very bad idea.

“People should worry about the slander it publishes because it is taking root in the rural areas,” he told FMT. “KL and Selangor are multi-cultural and able to discuss Utusan’s reports among themselves to seek clarification.”

“But the rural community is predominantly Malay-Muslim. Who are they going to cross-check their facts with? Neither is there another Malay-language paper to counter Utusan’s reports. The only media they are exposed to is government-owned media.”

“The racial flames are being stoked there and one day it will explode. I’m very afraid of that. If anything were to happen, it will begin in the rural areas. I have said before that another May 13 is likely if Utusan is allowed to continue playing up rubbish issues.”

Hata, who is the president of the National Union of Journalists, was given the boot from Utusan Malaysia on April 21 for allegedly tarnishing the paper’s image with such statements. But the termination came as a relief as he could no longer stomach the editorial content that almost flaunted the paper’s role as an Umno tool. Yet he said it wasn’t always this way.

“When I joined in 1995, Utusan was a paper that focused on Malay grassroots issues more than political ones,” he recalled. “The then editor-in-chief, Khalid Mohammad, had more control over the editorial content and the then prime minister, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, was more open to editorial-related discussions.”

“The Awang Selamat column was used to put forth suggestions on how Umno could address the issues affecting the Malay community. It wasn’t meant to attack people or parties. And even then the column was pulled after two months because of poor response.”

Awang Selamat has since been resurrected and according to Hata, the current column for Mingguan Malaysia is written by the editor-in-chief while the senior editors take turns penning the column in Utusan Malaysia.

Editorial agenda set by Umno

The swing in Utusan Malaysia’s stance came shortly after the 2008 election when Khalid was replaced by Aziz Ishak. According to Hata, the latter does not question the editorial directives set by the Umno political bureau which reportedly sits every Monday night to discuss the paper’s agenda for the week.

Those present are the president Najib Tun Razak, deputy president Muhyiddin Yassin, the three vice-presidents – Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, Hishamuddin Hussein and Safie Apdal – secretary-general Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor and information chief Ahmad Maslan.

The agenda is then communicated to Utusan Malaysia’s editor-in-chief via the prime minister’s office. The paper will run an issue for three days before dropping it completely unless it receives strong public support from top BN ministers.

It’s a clever strategy because by the third day the other media would have snapped it up to continue milking it, which would leave Utusan Malaysia free to start the ball rolling on another issue.

But this strategy has come at a price. Utusan Malaysia’s circulation figures are steadily declining and the paper has reportedly been suffering losses of up to RM20 million since 2009. Figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulation showed that paper’s daily sales have shrank 20% between June 2006 and June 2010.

“Some 50% of Utusan’s sales are government-sponsored,” Hata said. “Thirty-six government ministries subscribe to Utusan and the government spends up to RM50 million annually on advertisements. These are Utusan’s only profits because most organisations are reluctant to advertise.”

As of June 2010, Utusan Malaysia recorded an average sale of 170,558 copies, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulation. Of the number, between 70,000 and 80,000 copies are distributed to newspaper vendors daily, but Hata claimed that nearly half of these are returned at the end of the day.

The highest number of unsold copies are in Kuala Lumpur.

Hata said that many vendors are also uncomfortable with Utusan Malaysia’s front page stories and either conceal the paper behind other publications or hide it under their tables.

“I live in Puchong and of the 15 newspapers vendors, only one carries Utusan,” Hata said. “Most non-Muslim vendors are more comfortable displaying Berita Harian which carries Utusan’s main story on later pages and on a smaller scale.”

“Even some Umno division leaders have admitted their discomfort with Utusan’s extremist stand because they have to answer to their multi-racial constituents. But the political bureau is unconcerned. All it wants is for Utusan to retain the support of the rural Malay loyalists which it is doing very well.”

Media groups - Utusan’s unsubstantiated report irresponsible

Utusan’s unsubstantiated report irresponsible — Media groups
Published in The Malaysia Insider
May 11, 2011

MAY 11 — We, the undersigned civil society organisations, condemn the irresponsible Utusan Malaysia reporting over an alleged call from Christian pastors to change Malaysia’s “official religion” to Christianity.

On May 7, 2011, Utusan Malaysia published a front-page story “Kristian Agama Rasmi?” that relied on ‘information’ provided by the blogs, Bigdog and Marahku, without verifying it, nor identifying their authors.

The blogs themselves did not state how the “information” was obtained — i.e. whether directly heard at the meeting where Penang politician Jeff Ooi was present or from secondary sources who were there.

Utusan Malaysia also did not offer an explanation for not naming these sources. The use of anonymous sources — usually, in consideration of the sources’ safety — must be publicly justified.

Notwithstanding this, Utusan Malaysia chose to run this as a front-page report, no less, and in so doing, gave the unverified story the credibility it did not deserve.

Further, the front-page story only quoted Ooi denying the allegation that he had sponsored the meeting. The subjects of the allegation itself — the pastors who allegedly made this call — were not interviewed.

The Christian meeting’s organisers, which included the National Evangelical Christian Fellowship (NECF), had already denied the allegations of such a call being made in a statement published in the online media. Utusan Malaysia did not refer to this statement at all, nor was there any indication that any attempts were made to seek clarification from the pastors, NECF or any other Christian organisations.

The denial was only reported on May 9, and even then, Utusan Malaysia continued to seek responses to the issue, from the prime minister, defence minister and home minister. Najib Razak called for “calm”, Zahid Hamidi called for political parties not to politicise religious issue, Hishammuddin Hussein said if the allegations are true, this is very “serious”, and Selangor PAS Youth said if the allegations were true, people should remember Islam’s status in the Federal Constitution as the religion of the federation. These comments give further undue gravitas to the “discourse” arising from what was a non-issue to begin with.

The fact that Utusan Malaysia is continuing to spin more stories from a completely unverified report implies mischief on their part, since there is a danger of various communities reacting further and inflaming an essentially emotive issue. Already, there are at least seven police reports lodged in response to what was mere rumour.

Accuracy and verification are an integral part of journalism. Sources must be named as a measure of accountability on the part of both sources and journalists and to allow readers to judge for themselves whether the information provided is true.

In passing off unverified information as fact and failing to quote the pastors against whom accusations were being made, Utusan Malaysia has failed these basic principles of journalism. Not reporting NECF’s side of the story was not only unethical and irresponsible but also deliberately misleading.

We call on journalists and civil society to speak up and reject unethical practices which cast journalism in a bad light and bring further erosion of public trust of the mainstream media. We must hold Utusan Malaysia accountable for these flagrant violations of media ethics. — aliran.com

* This letter was jointly-signed by the Centre for Independent Journalism; Charter2000-Aliran; 1 Muted Malaysia; and Writers’ Alliance for Media Independence.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication. The Malaysian Alternative Voices does not endorse the view unless specified.

Malaysia Bar : Reject attempts by Utusan Malaysia to instil fear and spread falsehood

Press Release: Reject attempts by Utusan Malaysia to instil fear and spread falsehood
The Malaysia Bar
Lim Chee Wee

The Malaysian Bar is deeply concerned about the report that appeared on the front page of Utusan Malaysia on Saturday, 7 May 2011, entitled “Malaysia negara Kristian?”

Without offering any evidence save references to postings by bloggers, which do not appear to have been separately and independently verified, Utusan Malaysia saw fit to publish this story. Given the highly controversial nature of the alleged story, it is incumbent on any self-respecting newspaper to ensure that its reporting is fact-checked. To have printed such a story without checking with the subjects of the alleged incidents is highly irresponsible on the part of Utusan Malaysia, and is nothing short of gutter journalism.

What concerns the Malaysian Bar further is the fact that Utusan Malaysia appears to be able to offer such so-called journalism in a climate of impunity. Instead of questioning Utusan Malaysia’s journalistic conduct and ethics, the immediate responses from the Ministers in charge of home affairs and communications were to order investigations into the alleged incidents themselves.

It appears that it is enough for the police to launch an investigation once a report has been made, without first investigating the veracity of such reports themselves. The whole process of making police reports has thus been turned into an avenue to invade the privacy of dinner parties and closed-door meetings, without first asking whether the maker of such reports has ulterior motives. People are then being made to respond to police investigations launched on the flimsiest of reasons and to defend their freedom of assembly and speech. This is a mockery of the principle of justice that someone who is accused of wrongdoing is innocent until proven guilty. This is clearly a dangerous erosion of the fundamental liberties enshrined in our Federal Constitution, and must be stopped.

By immediately investigating the alleged incidents rather than those who made the reports, the authorities have shown favoured irresponsible parties how they can wantonly instil fear and religious disharmony in the country. All they have to do now is to make unproven and unsubstantiated allegations in any compliant national newspaper and the law enforcement authorities will do the rest. In this way, the authorities are gullibly assisting those who seek to play up lies and falsehoods in order to artificially create religious conflict.

In creating and/or highlighting this “non-news” item, these irresponsible parties seek to manoeuvre and manipulate current events so as to give the impression that certain elements within a particular community are working to cause disunity and perpetrate treasonous activities.

This dastardly deed by such reckless parties must be seen for what it is – a naked and blatant act of deliberate provocation. The aim appears to be to cause fear through the creation of false news. The lodging of police reports throughout the country seeks to invite the police to investigate a particular community, thus heightening emotions. This then conveniently provides the authorities with a false justification to tighten control of blogs and other forms of electronic media, thereby muzzling free speech, open dialogue and informed discussions.

Any independent observer of the mass media would reach the conclusion that Utusan Malaysia is beyond the reach of the law. Although the Malaysian Bar opposes the use of oppressive laws, including the Sedition Act 1948 and the Printing Press and Publications Act 1984, the Government threatens to wield such laws against those who voice dissent, hence acting in what is perceived as an arbitrary, or even biased, manner.

The Malaysian Bar is concerned that no action has been taken against Utusan Malaysia although it has persistently published intemperate and wild accusations, written in inflammatory language, which threaten Malaysia’s social fabric. Utusan Malaysia continues to act with impunity, and thus appears to enjoy a status that is above the law.

We call on the authorities to instead investigate the Utusan Malaysia journalists and editors responsible for perpetrating such repeated attempts to instil fear and spread falsehood.

Lim Chee Wee
President Malaysian Bar
9 May 2011

MCA Youth lodged Police Report - wants Utusan , blogger investigated

MCA Youth wants Utusan, bloggers investigated
Malaysia Insider
By Melissa Chi

May 09, 2011

KUALA LUMPUR, May 9 — MCA Youth demand police investigate Utusan Malaysia’s Christian Malaysia reports, as well as two blog posts cited by the newspaper.

The youth wing of the Barisan Nasional (BN) party lodged a police report today asking for the Umno-owned newspaper and the blog posts to be investigated under the Sedition Act.

Dr Kow Cheong Wei, MCA Youth publicity chief, told reporters that the police should conduct a
thorough probe because race and religion had been abused.

“We do not want and will not allow any party to use these issues, whether Islam or Christianity or any religion to be a propaganda tool in this country.

“We objected to the Islamic state by PAS and now we will not allow any party that brings out any issues regarding religion. We were advised, according to today’s papers, by Datuk Seri Najib that everyone must be calm and I think we as the youth, we do not want to raise whatever words or any additional statements,” he said, adding that he expects the police to act on the matter immediately.

Kevin Koo, an MCA Youth central committee member, also a lawyer, had lodged the police report today on behalf of the Federal Territory and Selangor MCA Youth at the Dang Wangi Police Headquarters to investigate an article published by Utusan Malaysia on May 17 with the headline “Malaysia, a Christian country?” as well as the cited articles published in two different blogs.

Utusan carried the front-page article on Saturday claiming that the DAP was conspiring with Christian leaders to take over Putrajaya and abolish Islam as the country’s official religion.
The report, based on blog postings by several pro-Umno bloggers, had charged the DAP with sedition for allegedly trying to change the country’s laws to allow a Christian prime minister, pointing to a grainy photograph showing what they described as a secret pact between the opposition party and pastors at a hotel in Penang last Wednesday.

The National Evangelical Christian Fellowship (NECF), together with partners Global Day of Prayer, Marketplace Penang and Penang Pastors Fellowship, said the claims against their community were lies, and has refuted the bloggers’ allegations.

Similarly, DAP leaders have denied the report and have accused Utusan of lying and have lodged police reports over the matter.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had called for calm yesterday and to allow the matter to be investigated first before making conclusions.

Chiew Lian Keng, Federal Territory MCA Youth Chief, said if such articles continued to be published, Malaysians will end up in a climate of fear.

“We urge MCMC (Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission) and the police to investigate this case as soon as possible. According to Utusan, two bloggers had spread the statement so we want the MCMC to investigate the dissemination of the statement.

“We don’t want to see any racial and religious problems in Malaysia to continue. Our country is peaceful but if this continues, the public will be living in fear,” he said.

(Lacking in) FREEDOM OF THE PRESS (143/196)

Freedom of the press
Opinion

2011-05-05 15:08
By LIM SUE GOAN

Translated by Soong Phui Jee

Sin Chew Daily

Malaysia has dropped from 141 to 143 out of 196 countries surveyed worldwide in the Freedom of the Press Index released by US-based Freedom House. It is categorised as "not free".
It shows that despite the efforts of several decades, Malaysia has not much improved in terms of press freedom.

After the national independence, freedom of the press has never been included in the government's plan of improvement due to political, racial and religious sensitivities. If there is a ranking for different fields, politics would top the list, followed by economy while freedom of the press would be ranked the bottom.

During the administration of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, the press lacked freedom and not much improvement had been made in Tun Abdullah Badawi's era. We thought that policies would be relaxed after the 2008 general election but freedom of the press has not been included in the Key Performance Index (KPI), National Key Results Areas (NKRA), Government Transformation Plan (GTP) and Economic Transformation Programme (ETP).

Our ranking is inconsistent with the status of a middle-income country. It is indeed shameful that Malaysia has been ranked below East Timor (77), the Philippines (93), Indonesia (108) and Cambodia (141) with relatively weaker economies.

There are three criteria to assess a country's freedom of the press:

Law and control: if there are many laws to control and restrain the media, the space of coverage will shrink. Media practitioners will naturally self-filter as they are fear of breaking the laws.
The government plans to amend the Printing Press and Publication Act but no action has yet been taken. However, the revised publications guidelines might control various information circulating on the Internet. If the law is tightened instead of relaxed, our ranking is likely to drop further next year.

If the Home and Information Communication and Culture Ministries plan to establish a national media advisory council so that the government is empowered to lead and restrain the media, the outlook for press freedom will be more gloomy.

The status of the media: in a country with a high degree of press freedom, the constitution, courts and government will protect the media and therefore, the media enjoy a high status. For example, President Richard Nixon was prompted to resign during the 1972 Watergate scandal.
In Malaysia, the mainstream media are controversial. They might be accused of being intervened by politics or becoming a racial camp, and lose their credibility and status.

It is a tragedy on the Press Freedom Day when National Union of Journalists (NUJ) President Hata Wahari was dismissed by the Utusan Melayu.

The quality of news: if the media become a day-book reporting only what people have said, it will be empty in terms of value.

The Los Angeles Times won the Pulitzer Prize gold medal for public service this year for revealing official corruption in Bell. In Malaysia, instead of corruption revealing reports, award winning reports are general news. Who is responsible for such a situation?

If Malaysia wishes to become an advanced high-income country in 2020, freedom of the press is absolutely essential. Without freedom of the press, we will never be categorised as a developed country and social justice will drift further and further away.

MySinchew 2011.05.05

Reasons for Show Cause Letters to News Daily

Reasons for Show Cause Letters to News Daily

The three newspapers that have been issued show-cause letters are theSun, Sin Chew Jit Poh, and Suara Keadilan.

Home Ministry is targeting

(1) TheSun
because they were allegedly “manipulating and playing up numerous sensitive issues”, and

(2) Sin Chew Jit Poh
for “its recent reports on the racial slur controversy involving Umno division leader Ahmad Ismail”. so its shows discrimination from the UMNO lead BN goverment.

(3) Suara Keadilan
-reports on Chief Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan conditions after by-pass surgery

Source :
Malaysiakini