The waiting game: behind the scenes with journalists


Seth Akmal

WORLD Press Freedom Day falls on May 3 and Malaysia saw a significant improvement in this arena. The country leaped 22 spots from 145 to 123 in the Reporters Without Borders’ 2019 World Press Freedom Index.

Malaysia also came out ahead of most of its Southeast Asian peers but only behind Timor Leste, which placed 84 in the index. 

Scores and ranking are based on the level of pluralism, media independence, the environment for the media and self-censorship, the legal framework, transparency, and the quality of infrastructure that supports the production of news and information. 

Waiting has been a norm among journalists in Malaysia since May 9, 2018. A famous line in the industry says “waiting for five hours only for a five-minute moment”. 

Despite all that, journalists play an important role to inform the people about the fact and truth without fear and favour in order to achieve better rank for the index. – May 3, 2019.


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