NUJ has made its stand on the matter and can we now expect the Sportwriters Association of Malaysia (SAM) to make a stand too?
12
OCTOBER, 2012
PRESS
STATEMENT FROM NATIONAL UNION OF JOURNALISTS (NUJ)
Stop harassing sports writers.
associations to stop intimidating sports writers by sending legal notice for publishing unfavourable
reports about them.
The reporters, just like journalists operating in other beats, are
carrying out their public duties to serve their audience, be it readers, viewers or listeners.
They carry public interest stories as the development of sports are
closely followed by the young and old.
The government allocates funds to develop and promote sports events and
journalists have the
right to expose wrong doings and
mismanagement.
The NUJ believe sports writers and their media organisations subscribe to
fair reporting which
includes giving aggrieved parties the right to
reply.
The practice of sending notice of demand to critical sports writers
tantamount to intimidating
them from pursuing investigative
reporting.
We assure sports writers that the NUJ will spring into action, including
defend their right to
carry out their duties free from
harassment.
Our call is in response to two former Malay Mail reporters who have been
issued letters of
demand by the NSC for stories published last year and this
year.
One of the reports is a subject matter in court
now.
We have also received feedbacks that reporters occasionally received
legal notices but
the aggrieved parties did not pursue further like filing legal
suits.
Thank
you.
V.
Anbalagan
General Secretary
General Secretary
1 comment:
Hats off to V. Anbalagan. And fair play to Tony for giving it a bit more exposure. As an outsider nothing would give me more pleasure than seeing Malaysia do well, but it does no-one any favours if criticisms can't be voiced. How can anyone improve if their work is not critiqued?
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