New look for Malaysia Today, look out for FreeMalaysiaToday site
http://www.malaysia-today.net/index.php
Malaysia Today unveiled a spiffy and breezy new look for its web site on Saturday with a new logo, and resumed service at its original domain name.
It now has a much more commercial feel to it, in contrast to the old site’s homespun philosophy, which readers may miss.
The changes come just a few days before the launching of another news site Free Malaysia Today, a name that dates back to Reformasi days of a decade ago stemming from the sacking of Anwar Ibrahim from government and his many subsequent tribulations.
Not coincidentally, Anwar is embroiled yet again in another trial on a sex crime charge that many are willing to believe is a put-up job designed to thwart his attempts to demolish the Umno-Barisan Nasional grip on power.
The new Free Malaysia Today, I am told, is planned to be a general news site providing Malaysian news and commentary together with world news, lifestyle articles, and sports.
Mohsin Abdullah, former NTV7 news editor and contributor to MySinchew and Malaysian Insider, is the biggest name on its masthead, though the site has several veteran news media personalities in the background.
The site will launch at noon on Nov 11Nov 9 and its backers have intentions of reviving the lost art of investigative journalism and providing a middle path between the traditional media and the existing alternative press.
For the moment, its prototype site contains nothing that will alarm any of the existing Internet newspapers like MalaysiaKini, Malaysian Insider, Malaysian Mirror, or the Nut Graph.
Until it comes out with something spectacular, Free Malaysia Today will have a tough time living up to the pioneering efforts of its short-lived predecessor FreeMalaysia.com, in the turbulent days of Reformasi, which also led to the birth of MalaysiaKini — 10 years old on Nov 28 — Malaysia’s pioneer in independent Internet journalism.
It was the Asian economic crisis of 1997-99, and the sacking and subsequent jailing of Anwar, that led to the boom in Internet usage among Malaysians, the spectacular growth of Internet news and commentary web sites and discussion groups, and the dramatic erosion of the credibility of the “mainstream” BN-owned press.
Raja Petra Kamarudin began the Free Anwar Campaign and shortly after in 1999 the FreeMalaysia web site was launched promising to provide “the sort of free speech which is next to impossible to find ANYWHERE in the traditional print and broadcast media”. Soon it unleashed a series of hard-hitting exposés on Malaysian government corruption and of the cronyism prevailing in the Mahathir administration, particularly the Mahathir-Daim Zainuddin nexus, explored in a series labelled the “Rogue’s Gallery”.
The mushrooming of pro-Reformasi web sites in all languages raised the hackles of the Malaysian government. FreeMalaysia.com was soon declared a “threat to national security” and Umno also announced it had identified 48 web sites containing “slanderous and defamatory” material which would be investigated.
No further action was taken, but MalaysiaKini was the subject of continual harrassment, a pattern which has remained unchanged. So, too, with Raja Petra, who launched Malaysia Today in 2004 on Anwar’s release, and who has since run exposés on “The Khairy Chronicles”, murdered Mongolian translator Altantuya Shaaribuu, police involvement in triad activity, and leaked Cabinet memorandums on the Port Klang Free Zone debacle.
He has been detained under the Internal Security Act, from which he was freed in a rare judicial decision upholding habeas corpus, and charged with sedition, and criminal defamation for revelations on Najib Tun Razak and his wife Rosmah Majid’s alleged involvement in the Altantuya murder. He has refused to face trial and remains a fugitive, in self-declared exile.
Raja Petra announced earlier this year, in the midst of his travails, that he was handing over control of Malaysia Today to his associates. The site, hosted on servers in Singapore, has been using its alternative mirror domain mt.m2day.org after its original domain of malaysia-today.net came under severe attack. The latest attack on its servers was in September when Malaysia Today released the leaked Cabinet memorandum.
Congratulations on your new web-site. While I look forward towards articles that are unbias unlike the mainstream newspapers, I would like to suggest that you have an additional column for open-discussions on religious issues e.g. the common values such as love and compassion, tolerance etc. This, I believe will promote greater religious tolerance between the various religions in this country.
Frank Tang
13 November 2009
It’s not just MalaysiaToday that’s having a new look – so too is malaysian media matters
Been quite a while since I actually came to this blog – been reading the RSS downloads in my offline reader,FeedDemon.
I’d say MalaysiaToday (MT) had become commercial since almost two years ago. Any site that has paid adverts is commercial, in my books. The new look just makes it officially so. Anyway, I feel there’s nothing wrong if it or any site leans towards making money. In fact, it’s only reasonable that they do so for the sake of sustainability. However, there’s the danger of losing independence, of course. But we have to be practical here – if it were left to me, I’d say “Take care you don’t die, first and foremost… Only after that will we talk about things like `ideals, standards, ethics’”
As for Free Malaysia Today – Actually I’m hoping it will NOT be like MT, Malaysiakini, Nut Graph, Malaysian Insider. There seems to be this stance among many that a website is only “as good as how loud it curses Umno, BN and the government.” This isn’t to say it should go the other way – just “REALLY be neutral, fair” and not merely faking as so.
BTW I hope Free Malaysia Today won’t be so obsessed with politics; with its pages filled with Umno, BN, Pas, Pakatan, DAP, Najib, Hadi Awang, Lim Kit Siang, Nik Aziz… Are they all there is to it about Malaysia? For once I’d like to see a website that works towards a common good – holding to universal values. Hmm, maybe I should write a new post at it at my neglected blog/s:-)
Mat Cendana
8 November 2009
Wah, you noticed the change…how flattering. Yes I do tinker with the blog now and then, this is the third theme I’ve used.
True, MT needs to support itself, and looking flashy is one way to persuade advertisers whether in print or on the Internet (like using glossy paper). A new look was inevitable, given the need to cover costs. It is quite a change from the rough-and-ready style of old, which was good for an at-a-glance view of what was available, and “culturally” a change from mamak-stall to “kopitiam”. But I doubt RPK is in any danger of allowing MT to start pandering to advertisers and providing “advertorials”!
You have a good point about the heavy political content of our Internet sites. There’s more to news than just politiical parties and politicians, but then that’s our politically-obsessed reading public seems to want. Whether anyone will be willing to put money into a venture aimed at the common good, sadly, is very much up in the air in present circumstances I think.
uppercaise
8 November 2009
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