Tackling the race factor in news reporting

Public forum in KL today

Media and Ethnicity: Overcoming the Challenges
• When: 8—10pm today, June 30
• Where: Hang Jebat room, Level 6, Le Meridien, KL Sentral, Brickfields
• Who: Panelists: V. Anbalagan (NUJ General Secretary), Fathi Aris Omar (senior journalist) and Dr Carmen Nge (academic and ethnicity trainer)

Ethnicity is so much part of the fabric of Malaysian society that it is hard to understand events or people without using the ethnic lens. Post-2008, media coverage of ethnic issues has come under even greater scrutiny given how ethnicity has been instrumentalised much more than before by certain segments of society – to the detriment of the nation.

Given this context, how should journalists cover events that have an ethnic element? What are the challenges faced by journalists and what strategies do they use to overcome these problems? Although these issues have been explored in academia and by civil society, little has been translated into a useful format for journalists.

To address this gap, CIJ has just published *Reporting on ‘Race’ & Ethnicity: A Handbook for Malaysian Journalists*. This handbook comes at such a timely juncture. It collates the ethical dilemmas and best practices for reporting ethnicity culled from journalists who attended a series of workshops conducted throughout Malaysia in early 2011, as well as available material on the issue. To “launch” the handbook, CIJ will be conducting a public forum to explore these challenges and more.

There will be an open discussion at the end, before supper is served.

RSVP: by e-mail to cijmalaysia@gmail.com or call 03-4023-772 during office hours.