Environment, media & law

Abstract

Overall there are 2 basic aspects of the mass media i.e. 1) newspaper/print media and 2) the broadcast media. The print media can again be split into the vernacular press and the English press. If you were to review the performance of the print media over the last 10 years on environmental issues, we can basically note that there is much more coverage in the English media. The vernacular has generally been rather slow. As far press as I know the Malay papers, even if you consider the Utusan Malaysia as an example, has been patchy at best in coverage. There was a period, at the time of Endau Rompin when Utusan gave fairly good coverage. When it came to Batu Caves, coverage was not too good. For the last 2 years, for some strange reason, the coverage in Utusan has dropped quite drastically. As far as coverage in the Chinese papers is concerned, my friends who read them have indicated that papers like Nanyang and Sin Chew have improved within the last 2 years. Before 1978/79, the Chinese papers hardly touched on environmental issues.