OVER the past few years, TV3’s nightly news programme has been on a rampage against Dr Mahathir Mohamad and anyone who disagreed with the Najib administration.

Indeed, the joke making the rounds was that the editors of Bulletin Utama ‎seemed to think that Malaysia was made up of only Penang and Selangor – such was the daily negative coverage given to the two states run by Pakatan Harapan.

Malaysia Decides understands that the senior editor who orchestrated the unfair and biased coverage has been asked to leave by Media Prima.

This is likely to be the first of many changes in the mainstream media following the shocking defeat of Barisan Nasional to the Dr Mahathir-led PH.

Sources said the listed media giant decided to relieve Mohd Ashraf Abdullah of his position as the group managing editor of news and current affairs. There is no suggestion that the new government forced the hand of the media group.

The better explanation was that the removal of Ashraf was a pre-emptive move by Media Prima to appease the new masters of Malaysia.

Since Dr Mahathir was sworn in as the prime minister, supporters of the new government have drawn up shortlists of individuals who should be punished for doing the nasty work on behalf of former prime minister Najib Razak.

Ashraf’s name was high on several of these lists because of the hatchet job the news programme, Bulletin Utama, did on Dr Mahathir and other Najib critics.

Though other editors and journalists in the newsroom were uncomfortable with the slant and unfairness of the coverage, they were too afraid to challenge Ashraf because it was widely known that he enjoyed the protection of Habibul Rahman, Najib’s enforcer.

In fact, it was Habibul who had the final say on how mainstream newspapers and television stations covered the news.

It is understood that Habibul left for London on Thursday to escape retribution from his long line of enemies in PH and the corporate world.

PH’s victory has had an immediate impact on the media landscape with local newspapers and government-owned television stations suddenly extolling the virtues of Selangor and Penang. 

Today, Jalil Abdul Hamid, the CEO of the News Straits Times Press is scheduled to convene a town-hall meeting for staff at the newspaper group.

Attendance is compulsory and Jalil, who has overseen the collapse of the once-proud New Straits Times, ‎is expected to brief journalists on operating in the new Malaysian landscape. 

His job could also be shaky given his close ties‎ with Habibul and the paper’s skewed coverage of the then opposition. – May 14, 2018.