Fear is a Habit: Self-censorship of Chinese-language Newspapers in Malaysia

馬來西亞華文報自我審查問題前人雖有研究，但不系統，本文深度訪談四家報社新聞工作者及獨立媒體人共22位，從法政、所有權、廣告及華社等四大因素檢視華文報的自我審查。 馬來西亞獨立後，殖民時期即已存在的箝制媒體之法規干預更為明顯，至馬哈迪時期達到高峰。至阿都拉及納吉時期，媒體法令並無根本性鬆綁，但網路新聞媒體的崛起、傳統媒體政治管制的「不經意」放寬，加之2008年大選在野黨勢力崛起與民心思變，「反政府」風潮乍起，華文報遂回應社會壓力而開放言論尺度，同時仍以淡化或偏頗手法遂行自我審查。政治新聞雖有最大鬆綁，華文報在關鍵面向卻優先凸顯官方論調、唱和官方思維，藉此「市場」、「當權者」兩不得罪。作者指認這是華文報自我審查的鬆綁底線，且隨議題不同而見底線差異。在華社議題方面，不破壞華團形象的傳統立場明顯鬆動；廣告方面，卻仍嚴格維護特定大廣告主的形象。至於種族、宗教與王室三大敏感議題，以及報老闆商業利益則鬆綁幅度似乎最小。There were studies mentioning self-censorship of Chinese-language newspapers in Malaysia, but no systematic study has been conducted. This study reviews self-censorship of Chinese-language newspapers on four major factors of politics, ownership, advertising and the Chinese community, through in-depth interviews with a total of 22 journalists of four newspapers and independent media practitioners. Media control through regulatory intervention, which already existed during the colonial period, became more apparent after Malaysia achieved independence and reached its peak during Mahathir's times. During Abdullah's and Najib's eras, media law fundamentally did not deregulate, but the rise of news media on the Internet, "casual" relaxation of political control on traditional media, coupled with the rise of opposition forces during the 2008 election and the change in public thinking, gave way to "anti government" sentiment, Chinese-language newspapers opened up in terms of freedom of speech in response to social pressure, and yet still carried out self-censorship by practicing dilution or bias. Although political news reporting experienced the maximum relaxation of self-censorship, Chinese-language newspapers still preferred highlighting official rhetoric and echoing official thinking, thereby not offending both the "market" and the "authority." The author identifies this as the bottom line of self-censorship relaxation of Chinese-language newspapers, and the bottom line varies among different topics. In terms of Chinese community's social issues, the traditional position of not undermining the image of Chinese associations was apparently loosened; in terms of advertising, Chinese-language newspapers still found to be strictly maintaining image of particular major advertisers. Relaxation of self-censorship seemed to be least on the three sensitive issues of race, religion and the royal family, as well as the interests of its owner