For most Malaysians, when they think or refer to the media, it is basically the traditional or state-controlled media, or those run by politicians (commonly described as mainstream), and there are to a lesser extent the alternative and independent media.

Whichever media Malaysians choose to get their news and views, whichever media they follow was based actually on historical factors going down generations, but all this is fast changing, as truth, as it should be understood, has been compromised by the media.

Many Malaysians are now better educated and better informed. They therefore have come to understand that truth has become a casualty of the media, especially mainstream media, guilty of varnishing their news and views and churning propaganda.

This bad faith of political parties using the mainstream media to promote their own agenda with an overkill of biased and prejudiced views cleverly presented as being credible, fair and balanced, now needs to be desensitised by Malaysian viewers and readers.

Malaysian viewers and readers must reclaim their right to know the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth and this has become a real hard challenge for many as they have to do the work of checking and verifying information by the media.

In a country like Malaysia, where the media ranks and rates poorly in terms of telling the truth in the opinion of indexes by watchdogs and councils monitoring the press, it is high time to overhaul the system and delivery of news and views to the rakyat.

-THE MALAYSIA VOICE