BRUNEI-MUARA

THERE is an absence of balanced reporting in Brunei’s media, as the environment does not allow the media to pursue other avenues and report freely, a journalist said yesterday.

The situation for the media is restrictive to the point where reporters are criticised by the government when they try to get additional information or comments, said Waleed PD Mahdini, chief reporter of Borneo Bulletin.

Speaking as a panelist at the seminar on “The Media and the Law: Exploring the Freedom and Limits of Expression”, he said that there is no place for alternative views due to the lack of free discussions and public forums.

“Government reporting is only one-tracked, you cannot add, delete, as in the case of some ministries, you cannot ask and call for comments (and) that leads them to ask us back in return, ‘Why do you want to rock the boat?” he said.

“In the end, what we have are no checks or balances, and this can be very dangerous for anybody’s future,” he said, adding that the public needs information to help and guide them to make choices.

He added that “everybody is already afraid of the social structure, let alone defamation suits”. “We are all afraid. But what are we afraid of? When His Majesty has repeatedly reminded and called on us to report the truth and not be afraid.”

He further said that Brunei does not have a Press or Media Act “that spells out what the media can or cannot do”.

He suggested the Attorney General’s Chambers to provide some indicator that “the Bruneian media has a positive and constructive role to play and that we are part and parcel of nation building”.

Giving it an official recognition or acknowledgement that it is a meaningful role will be seen as a good signal for the people, the private sector and the government to approach the media with their stories, experiences and inputs, he added.

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Her Royal Highness Princess Hjh Muta-Wakkilah Hayatul Bolkiah graced the event which is geared towards creating awareness on existing laws regulating the media and improving communications between the government and the media, particularly the new media, towards accurate information.

“The law pays an important role in ensuring that the media does not depart from their main objective to disseminate information to the public in the name of public interest. As what has been said, what may be in the public interest may not necessarily be what the public is interested to know,” Attorney General Datin Paduka Hjh Hayati POKSDSP Hj Mohd Salleh said in her opening remarks yesterday.

There are limits put in place on the freedom of expression in Brunei and this should not come as a surprise, she added.

Another panelist, Deputy Permanent Secretary at the Prime Minister’s Office Hj Mahrub Hj Murni proposed several moves to improve communication between the government and media practitioners, saying that there needs to be a conducive and clear regulatory framework, co-regulation and open and consultative between the media, the AGC and the relevant agencies involved.

Ignatius Stephen, of Brudirect.com suggested that mindsets be changed to a more positive one when interacting with the media.

Ahmad Jefri Abdul Rahman, senior counsel at the Attorney General’s Chambers (AGC) said that it was still a challenge to create an effective working relationship between the media and government, even though the former has been recognised an effective tool in disseminating information to the public.

“There is still the need to establish proper channels of communication so that the media have the information that they need to go to press,” he said in his concluding remarks during the seminar.

The Brunei Times

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