I only have free TV at home and was intrigued by how the mainstream news portrayed the Bersih Peaceful Rally. A friend told me Al Jazeera had a different take. The contrast is quite evident.
Tear gas fired at Malaysian Rally
Here’s the first news report I read.
Malaysia Police Turn Water Cannons on Protesters
And a second.
It’s confirmed there are at least 20 arrested, and Sonia’s blog mentions 15 names.
Rocky has some pictures here.
40,000 protest for free and fair elections
This little phrase caught my eyes … “Protests are rare in Malaysia” . Since it’s rare, that’s why people sit up and pay attention when something like this happens. I noticed quite a number of protests the last 2 years. A Malaysian cultural distinctive is that all have been peaceful as far as I know . that’s why I was puzzled when the news had a little “after report segment” which equated what happened today to sure violence. Good to hear what Haris Ibrahim had to say in the interview (which paints a different picture from what I saw on the mainstream news!). One thing for sure, it was a first for many. Another thing is sure, I have “reloaded” insight on how the media works. 🙂
Literally a birds eye view.
What really made me chuckle was TV1’s montage of the evils of “rioting”, complete with bloodied Pakistani protesters and what not. But if I’m not mistaken, they all ran an audio conversation between an Al-Jazeera journalist and our Information Minister, busy defending the government’s reason for its crackdown. I found his emotional responses to be completely missing the point, but that’s just me…