Makkal Osai suspended

Makkal Osai suspended
A local Tamil newspaper Makkal Osai, was suspended 30 days. This was done by the Internal Security Ministry. The newspaper had been supended due to the publishing of a cartoon picture of Jesus Christ holding a cigarette in one hand and a can of beer in the other on its front-page. The picture was could threaten public security, harmony and morality, or seriously disturb the thinking of the people, or that contravened the law and threatened public or national interest (Star, 2007).

In a multi-racial country like Malaysia, everybody has to respect each other. The citizens must compromise with each of the races and religious differences. Religion is a very sensitive issue in Malaysia. It is important for newspaper journalist to be more concern of the quality of the information and be aware with the communication environment (Kent, 2007).

Document designers should reference to the personal knowledge, believe, attitudes, and values in order to produce a good document (Shriver, 1997, p.372). Media ethic is relative and situational. It is said that media ethics has a diverse character, tailored to fit the particular mass medium, the particular person, the particular stage in a country’s development and the particular type of government at the time (Merrill, 2000).

Malaysia is an Asian country where the mutual respect for each other is very strong. Thus, the offensive picture is considered as unethical and disrespectful for the believers.
In conclusion, the Makkal Osai case is an example of unethical cultural context issues. Other publishers should treat this issue as a warning and should be aware and sensitive of their readers.

Reference

Kent,J 2007, ‘Anger at Malaysia 'Jesus cartoon' ’, BBC News 23 August 2007,viewed 8 June 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6960220.stm

Merrill, J 2000, ‘Media ethics in Asia: between relatively and absolutism’, Regional Seminar on Media Ethics, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia,viewed 8 June 2009,
http://dr.ntu.edu.sg/bitstream/10220/3162/1/AMIC_2000_SEP11-13_07.pdf

Shriver, KA 1997, Dynamic in document design: creating text for readers, Wiley Computer Pub, New York

Star 25 August 2007, ‘Makkal Osai suspended’,viewed 6June 2009,
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/8/25/nation/18696017&sec=nation