‘Great journalism will always attract readers. The words, pictures and graphics that are the stuff of journalism have to be brilliantly packaged; they must feed the mind and move the heart.’
– Rupert Murdoch, American businessman, media tycoon and investor.
Special day for journalists in Malaysia
Today is National Journalists’ Day or Hawana, a special day for journalists in Malaysia.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob is set to officiate at the Hawana 2022 event in Melaka today.
Hawana is organised in appreciation of the service of journlists in Malaysia and the event is held every day in conunction with the first pubication of Utusan Melayu newspaper on May 29, 1939.
The Malaysian-Indonesian Journalists’ Association (Iswami)are the main drivers for the implementation of Hawana 2020 which will also include other agencies, organisations and media practitioners.
Seventeen media leaders from Indonesia including Iswami Indonesia have been invited to attend the celebration today.
It is good for the Malaysian government to recognise May 29 as National Journalists Day. After all, journalists play an important role in nation building by helping the government to disseminate information and shape society.
This was pointed out recently by the president of the National Press Club in Kuala Lumpur, Datuk Ahirudin Attan when he appeared as guest on the “Bicara Nartif” programme broadcast by RTM.
Indeed, during the COVID-19 pandemic, journalsits were among the frontliners who supplied credible information within the wider “infodemic” and helped to combat myths and rumours about the virus.
Ahirudin described the hosting of Hawana as an excellent initiative to unite media practitioners in Malaysia so that the ecosystem of the journalistic field in the country would be further strengthened in the future.
On today’s Hawana celebration, he added it recognised media practitioners including cameramen, publishers, authors and all parties involved in news delivery.
While some media practitioners will be enjoying themselves and sharing opinions on how to enhance the development and growth of the media industry in Melaka today, it will be life as usual for many others including yours truly in Sarawak.
We will go to work as usual and do our jobs well to ensure that our newspapers come out on time tomorrow.
Today, in conjunction with National Journalists’ Day, there will be stories on journalism and interviews with journalists in some local newspapers including New Sarawak Tribune.
For my column today, I have been asked to share a bit about my life as a journalist.
Looking back, it has been a long hard journey which began immediately after Form Six.
I started working as a sub-editor in The Sarawak Herald, a small English newspaper in Sibu, my hometown, in 1978. I took the job because it was available and I needed to support myself. There were no computers then, only typewriters.
I quit after a while to babysit a nephew.
My next newspaper job was with Sarawak Tribune in Kuching as a reporter and photograher in 1980. I began by writing features and short news.
After a while, I was promoted to sub-editor and began to edit news and take care of the pages. When Tribune began to computerise, all the staff went for computer courses.
Later, I left Tribune to work in a Brunei weekly, The Borneo Bulletin, as its staff correspondent in Kuching. I was there from 1985 until 1990.
I learnt a lot and travelled to many rural towns in Sarawak while working for The Borneo Bulletin. All my bosses in Brunei were Europeans and from them, I learnt to write human interest features. They loved the stories I wrote on the longhouses and my trips up the rivers in ulu Sarawak.
I also covered the Brunei Airline’s inaugural flight from Bandar Seri Begawan to London. That was the first time I visited London. Since then, I have been there three or four times.
I left The Borneo Bulletin to go back to Sarawak Tribune in 1990. I held various posts in Tribune until it was suspended in 2006 for publishing controversial caricatures of Prophet Muhammad.
After that, I worked for Eastern Times, a tabloid in Kuching as Associate Editor.
Eastern Times was relaunched in 2010 as the New Sarawak Tribune.
Before I became a journalist, I knew nothing about journalism. But I was good in English because I had good English teachers at St Elizabeth’s Convent School, my secondary school.
Life as a journalist is no bed of roses. It is not for the faint-hearted and those who like to take life easy. You see, there are deadlines to observe and very often, you have to work under severe pressure.
In journalism, I am a product of the school of hard knocks and have studiously climbed up the ladder.
There were times when I wanted to quit because of the tough challenges I faced. But looking back, I am glad I have persevered and along the way, become a better person and a good journalist.
Happy National Journalists’ Day, my friends!
