Futile to ban newspapers, says Najib

Futile to ban newspapers, says Najib PDF Print E-mail Wednesday, 20 October 2010 10:51am ©The Sun (Used by permission) by Zakiah Koya KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 19, 2010): The prime minister believes that press freedom is crucial to national development. As such, Datuk Seri Najib Razak said banning newspapers would be counter-productive and a futile exercise. "Malaysia’s position is that we support press freedom and a responsible press. Without free media, the world cannot be as integrated as it is today. "Restricting freedom and holding back globalisation in any way that would be counter-productive and a futile exercise – banning newspapers would be essentially futile,– Najib said when closing The Creation of a Global Citizen: Media Liberalisation and New Political Realities forum today, held ahead of the Umno annual general assembly which starts on Thursday. The forum was attended by 22 political parties from 21 countries and Umno clubs. Najib said it was vital to ensure that the media carried and amplified the voices of reason. "Such voices must be carried in much more assertive manner – responsible voices must be louder." Defining "global citizens" as "individuals who are part of a community but have a sense that they are bigger and broader than their own town and nation", Najib said the main challenge facing global citizens was the rise of extremists which had managed to come together due to the advance of internet and information technology. "Whether we like it or not, IT has made us all global ctizens," said Najib, stressing that the problem was not between different religions but "between extremists of different faiths". "What we need to do as a globalised solution, is to re-isolate the extremists of all faiths. Make voices of the moderates to be louder in the media and the Internet, with voices of leaders of different faith. "If we allow extremists to dictate, the outcome is that we will not resolve the situation," he said. He also said that globalised trade and commerce had tied economies so close together that "a crisis anywhere is a crisis everywhere". "Globalised travel has brought about globalised disease and globalised environment degradation. Misinformation, lies and hatred have never spread more quickly and been more damaging than ever before," he said. "As long as there is open democracy, there is freedom of the press – of course with limitations – as long as the limitations are not suffocating. "We cannot be too judgmental in what is good and what is bad for the country – as long as the outcome is a nation that is progressing and the people are well off. "It is tempting to talk about the good old day/td>