In a busy news room, one never wants to be the last to know things. The person with the information first gets further ahead. In the age of mobile alerts, BlackBerries and I-Phones, we all want to be kept up to date with what is happening. It doesn’t have to be the latest news, it can even be what the celebrities are doing or what your friends’ every move is via Twitter.
Receiving updates after the fact is of no value. It’s not fun being the last to know, and so we try to keep abreast on what is happening with the commodity we feel is of most value.
I know that my BlackBerry is used to keep updated on the latest news and views not to mention my Facebook account, and when there is a service disruption, I’m not a very happy telco customer. But that’s because I don’t want to be the last to know things.
Recently I’ve felt like Malaysians have been the last to know. We seem to be getting our news a tad too late to put it kindly. Sometime in mid 2008, two jet engines were stolen and shipped to Uruguay. The issue was brought to light a year and a half later and report last December.
Though, the whole reality that this has happened confuses me, it puzzles me even more how it only took 2 men to remove a jet engine - my mistake two jet engines - all by themselves probably with their bare hands instead of a forklift, authorise the sale not locally but internationally, courier it- they must have had special DHL rates - and remove it out of a high security area – without being noticed.
I can only compare the act to me trying to remove my car engine all by myself without making a sound.
Even if I were a certified mechanic, I’m sure it would be a feat worthy of an entry in the Guinness Book of Records – what more a jet engine … o my mistake again, two jet engines.
So how could all this have happened under the radar and the incident only be brought to light over a year later?
Another piece of news that got to the public late was the canning of three women for acts of close proximity. If nothing more, a lot of people are upset by the stealthy manner in which the punishment was carried out. Perhaps the outrage is even more so because there is another case of a similar punishment that is on hold due to public outcry and international attention.
Maybe I should not comment on this further for it is a private matter, but then why even tell the public after the fact?
What we need is transparency and not just a slogan or fancy organisations and theme songs. We need it in action from the people that we have voted for and from the news desks we diligently follow. What we need is more that just reporters who regurgitate news, because there is a huge vacuum that needs to be filled with investigative journalism but perhaps what we first need is for the media to be allowed to report and comment, instead of be curtailed.
When news is withheld from the public, there is something very wrong and the people in charge loose credibility. The problem with controlled or delayed news is a lot like exchange rates. If the value of a currency is not truly reflected at the present time, there is a higher demand for it in the black market; and the black market is hard to control, even if the so called black market is online news portals.
Someone laughingly called me an activist last week. At first I thought that wasn’t very nice but then I realised that I’d rather be an activist fighting for a better country than be a bystander watching us fall apart.
Natalie is not attached to her phone but likes her news updates and her BlackBerry very much.
Comments: letters@thesundaily.com
Receiving updates after the fact is of no value. It’s not fun being the last to know, and so we try to keep abreast on what is happening with the commodity we feel is of most value.
I know that my BlackBerry is used to keep updated on the latest news and views not to mention my Facebook account, and when there is a service disruption, I’m not a very happy telco customer. But that’s because I don’t want to be the last to know things.
Recently I’ve felt like Malaysians have been the last to know. We seem to be getting our news a tad too late to put it kindly. Sometime in mid 2008, two jet engines were stolen and shipped to Uruguay. The issue was brought to light a year and a half later and report last December.
Though, the whole reality that this has happened confuses me, it puzzles me even more how it only took 2 men to remove a jet engine - my mistake two jet engines - all by themselves probably with their bare hands instead of a forklift, authorise the sale not locally but internationally, courier it- they must have had special DHL rates - and remove it out of a high security area – without being noticed.
I can only compare the act to me trying to remove my car engine all by myself without making a sound.
Even if I were a certified mechanic, I’m sure it would be a feat worthy of an entry in the Guinness Book of Records – what more a jet engine … o my mistake again, two jet engines.
So how could all this have happened under the radar and the incident only be brought to light over a year later?
Another piece of news that got to the public late was the canning of three women for acts of close proximity. If nothing more, a lot of people are upset by the stealthy manner in which the punishment was carried out. Perhaps the outrage is even more so because there is another case of a similar punishment that is on hold due to public outcry and international attention.
Maybe I should not comment on this further for it is a private matter, but then why even tell the public after the fact?
What we need is transparency and not just a slogan or fancy organisations and theme songs. We need it in action from the people that we have voted for and from the news desks we diligently follow. What we need is more that just reporters who regurgitate news, because there is a huge vacuum that needs to be filled with investigative journalism but perhaps what we first need is for the media to be allowed to report and comment, instead of be curtailed.
When news is withheld from the public, there is something very wrong and the people in charge loose credibility. The problem with controlled or delayed news is a lot like exchange rates. If the value of a currency is not truly reflected at the present time, there is a higher demand for it in the black market; and the black market is hard to control, even if the so called black market is online news portals.
Someone laughingly called me an activist last week. At first I thought that wasn’t very nice but then I realised that I’d rather be an activist fighting for a better country than be a bystander watching us fall apart.
Natalie is not attached to her phone but likes her news updates and her BlackBerry very much.
Comments: letters@thesundaily.com
