Pushing the envelope of ethical journalism?
By BOB TEOH
Malaysiakini
The way expensive gifts were thrown at journalists at the Premier Media Night on Thursday borders on ‘envelope’ journalism, yet Prime Minister Najib Razak who was in attendance has the gall to tell journalists how to do their job while the expensive gifts were dished out.
The golden cow consists of lucky draws for a brand new Peugeot 408 costing over RM100,000 on-the-road. Other freebies include bicycles and motorcycles, plus electronics such as two iPhone 6 (64 gigabyte) smartphones, Samsung Tab 4 tablets, and Samsung LED televisions of various sizes up to 75 inches, as well as a goodie bag for each guest consisting of an umbrella, crackers, a mug, a notepad, a flashlight, and a book on Islamic inheritance.

Najib Razak very taken up by the top prize of a Peugeot 408 at the Premier Media night.
I suspect there were not more than 300 working journos that night, the rest were made up by civil servants, bloggers, PR practitioners and hangers-on. The whole gala media night could cost over RM300,000 including the banquet and lucky draws. That works out to be RM1,000 per journo.
Well, that’s close to what is known as envelope journalism. It doesn’t matter if the gifts were sponsored, they still probably fall into the category of envelope journalism. It’s a different thing altogether when one bought a ticket to attend a charity or gala event and won a lucky draw. That is clear.
The envelope journalism phenomenon was virtually unknown among local journalists once upon a time but was a common practice in neighbouring countries where journalists are usually given an envelope stashed with cash for covering a press conference or interview. The one who takes the envelope understands that this entails a good write-up of a cover-up of some bad news or both. Continue reading