ROCKY'S BRU AMONG THOSE GIVING LECTURE IN "ZAMALAH" PROGRAMME IN KUCHING

-UnReportedNews™® HAD THE PRIVILEGE TO SPEAK WITH THE ADVISOR TO THE BLOG HOUSE MALAYSIA

JULAIHI NARAWI

THE famous blogger and journalist Datuk Ahirudin Attan a.k.a Rocky's Bru is one of among the invited guests to give a lecture at the two-week “Zamalah” (Fellowship) program 1Malaysia Young Journalists which started in Kuching here this morning.

UnReportedNews™® had the privilege to meet and briefly discussed on several local political issues with Ahirudin who is also the Advisor to the Blog House Malaysia at the opening ceremony of the program.

Meanwhile, Minister in the Chief Minister (Special Duties) Tan Sri Datuk Amar Adenan Satem said that the existence of the traditional media has been established for decades in newspapers, television, radio and magazines are still in place in the hearts of readers, even when forced to compete with the presence of the new media such as blogs, Facebook , Twitter and others.

He said that the scenario can be proven through the increase of the local newspaper circulation in Malaysia between 2005 to 2011.

"For the state of Sarawak, the local English newspaper circulation increased from only 60,708 copies (2005) to 154,000 until June 2011 and similarly to Malay language newspaper which revealed an increase of 11,124 copies to 72,600 copies at the same time period.”

"Only local Chinese newspaper that showed a slight decrease, from 160,864 to 125,179 copies, therefore, it has been shown that traditional media are still in place and able to cope with the survival of new media," he said in his text speech was read by Minister of Industrial Development (Investment & Promotion) Haji Julaihi Narawi.

He said that in Peninsular Malaysia is still the same situation when the Malay-language newspaper circulation continued to rise sharply from just 1.7 million copies to 2.1 million in the same period.

"From there, we can imagine that local newspapers will continue to take root in this country even  the new media mushrooming here and there and in the West, similar scenarios have occurred," he said.

According to him, one reason why it is preferred to the traditional media may be more objective, disciplined and easily monitored using a name other than the author of each published report.

"Compared to cyber space, the writer will often use only nicknames only to the extent that I think they deliberately hide and questioned whether they are really sincere to write or have a strong fact to face with people.”

"But, for their traditional media is the 'gatekeeper' of information made up of professional reporters and journalists who are eligible to determine what can be published and what should not be broadcast," he said.

ONE FOR THE ALBUM

Julaihi added, since there is no capacity of “self-censorship” then the new media writers also tend to write down what he heard from other people without a questionnaire.

"This is where the danger arises when the news may not be correctly written and the source is not the authoritative person and this has been a lot happening in this country and as a journalist you should know about all the suing here and there.”

"However, local newspapers are also involved because of distorted information, but not that which has been published on the internet," he explained adding thus, as the newspapers would not run away from ensuring that the responsibility to develop this country therefore journalists/reporters in this country should continue to write objectively.

"With such a spectrum of media that serve the area, directed, focused and able to spread in the blink of an eye of course a huge impact on society and the nation and, of course the government's intention to utilize the media for national development, especially Malaysia is moving towards a developed and progressive nation."

The two weeks program organized the Malaysian Press Institute (MPI) and the Information Department was attended by 26 participants and five were reporters from West Malaysia.

Throughout the program, they will be exposed to a variety of media titles including the current scenario, how to operate a newspaper, news writing and dialogue with Acting President of the State, the Commissioner of Police and Deputy Director of the Sarawak State Planning Unit.

Also present were Chief Executive Officer of MPI as a moderator of the course Dato Chamil Wariya, Sarawak Information Director Resat Salleh, Utusan Sarawak Group Editor-in-chief Wiliam chan and other invited guests.

-UnReportedNews™®