In 2015, I was invited to a variety program on Astro to talk about cybersecurity.
This was just after Malaysian Airlines (MAS) had their DNS hijacked, but I was specifically told by the producer that I could NOT talk about the MAS hack, because MAS was a government linked company, and they couldn’t talk bad about GLCs.
Then half-way through the interview they asked me about government intervention, and I said something to the effect of “Governments are part of the problem and should refrain from censoring the internet”, that sound-bite never made it to TV because it was censored.
This was some stupid variety show called VBuzz, on a Tamil TV channel (of all places), tucked away in the Astro labyrinth of channels, and even then they were absolutely piss scared of being critical of anything even remotely close to the government. My statement wasn’t even directed at the Malaysian government, it was directed at government intervention in general, but alas, they feared too much and censored it out.
To be fair, I’m 100% certain the station would not have been in any trouble if they just broadcasted all of what I said (I’ve been more critical on other mediums like the blog and radio), but the producers chose to err on the side of caution.
When I asked why it was censored, they said it was because of the ‘law’. When I pressed her to give the actual law in question, and her response (quite nonchalantly) was that it was an un-written law!
Then…GE14 happened and….
Two days ago, on Astro Awani (LIVE!!), a commentator openly criticized directly the SPR commissioner, a Government Agency….and Astro didn’t censor now. Far more critical than what I said, and Far worse, but somehow magically the media found their spine that day.
It’s now a viral clip of how press freedom actually looks like, and hopefully this refreshing change will permeate through all of Malaysian media.