ENGLISH-language broadcast stations are now enjoying the freedom to push greater boundaries in their coverage of politics and current issues under the new Pakatan Harapan government, station heads said.

For one, BFM Radio general manager Meera Sivasothy no longer has to submit a weekly list of topics and people the station will interview to the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC).

“It is a relief. It’s liberating for someone who’s been looking at the regulatory side of things for the past 10 years,” said Meera, responding to how it is now after the 14th general election.

Recounting the past ten years, Meera said BFM was called up several times and fined RM10,000 in 2014 for the Reza Azlan interview.

“Nine of us – producers, presenters, podcasters, team leads and me who approved it –had to have our statements taken over three days. But nothing came out of it until a year later when they suddenly showed up at the office with a fine,” Meera said in an interview at BFM’s new office in Menara Ken, Kuala Lumpur.

Another interview that landed BFM in hot soup was the interview with Rafizi Ramli on the National Feedlot Corporation issue in 2011.

“At times even talk sets would get called up. Anything to do with sex and religion. And politics would always get you into trouble at the time,” she added.

Astro Awani group editor-in-chief Suhaimi Sulaiman said some of the programmes they now have on the 24-hour TV station were “unheard of” in the past.

“In the old Malaysia, debates involving the opposition parties were unheard of,” Suhaimi said.

He said people would think they were mad if the station wanted to highlight debates about PKR during the time of the Barisan Nasional administration.

“But after the elections, we carried the Umno presidential debates live and if you look at the graph (on viewership), it went up. After that, we even carried the PKR vice-presidential race and the youth debates,” said the 56-year-old news anchor.

Since GE14, both BFM and Awani have interviewed DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang. Awani also featured PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang in its post-GE14 100-day coverage.

Suhaimi, who started his career in TV3, believes after a long lull, Malaysians have begun to take control of the media.

“Viewers now expect us to engage both sides. If we don’t do it, viewers will ask what happened to Malaysia Baru? As journalists we love being able to talk to both sides,” said Suhaimi.

He said viewers are now dictating to the station who it should interview via emails and social media.

“As journalists, we are always pushing the boundaries but people are moving very fast now. They want it. It’s not the government but the people,” he added.

Some of Awani’s new programmes are a news segment by popular V-blogger Mat Luthfi and former radio presenter Sharaad Kuttan. While Mat does his segment in Bahasa Malaysia with a Kedah accent, Sharaad hosts an English talk show from 10pm to 11pm every night.

In 2016, Awani had also attempted a similar talk show hosted by comedian Harith Iskander. But the show only lasted one season after interviews with former minister Rafidah Aziz and PKR vice president Nurul Izzah Anwar.

Awani has discovered that Malaysians want more political debates and news analysis during and after GE14, said Suhaimi.

“We used to get around 4-5 million unique visitors per month but in May, we had 12 million unique visitors and 86 million page views,” he said of the channel’s website which also carries news reports.

“Whenever we had the debates – Umno presidential, PKR elections etc – the numbers would spike,” said Suhaimi.

Although, it almost feels that there are no more government boundaries, Meera believes stations still have to self-regulate.

“We’ve had Lim Kit Siang, Khairy Jamaluddin and Tom Wright and it feels like there’s no boundaries at the moment.

“There’s none where the government is concerned, but there’s always the listener and we still have to self-regulate on what’s appropriate or not.”

Meera said BFM is similarly facing more feedback from the public about having more opposition on air.

“Other than the articulate ones like Khairy, not many of them (opposition) seem to know which direction they want to head.

“We want more opposition on as we need a strong opposition too. But they are not ready or confident enough yet.”

For how long?

Ironically, Suhaimi said the only complaint they have received since GE14 is from Umno Supreme Council member and former government propaganda unit (Jasa) strategic communications director Tun Faisal Ismail.

During last month’s Umno general assembly, Tun Faisal accused the channel of being Pakatan Harapan sympathisers and “worse than TV3”.

“We pointed out that we had lives (live telecasts) from the Umno general assembly and even carried their president’s speech live on TV. He has since retreated after we addressed his concerns through a press release on our website,” said Suhaimi.

But while the new found freedom is welcomed, Meera wonders how long it would last.

“There’s a part of me that’s still thinking that a clampdown will come at some stage. I personally feel the media is a threat to any government,” said Meera.

The government must avoid the temptation to regulate content and leave it to the public, she added.

For Suhaimi, that bus has left the station.

“We shouldn’t decide which topics people are ready to listen to. If it’s dissected and presented well and you know what people can deal with they can accept it. There’s no topic we cannot discuss. It’s how you tell a story.

“Since May 9 I have not received any calls from anyone not to do anything. Previously there were calls either directly to me or others in the organisation.

“Viewers want views from both sides and we are only playing catch up. I don’t think viewers can be reined in any more,” said Suhaimi. – October 11, 2018.