Editor’s note: It is certainly not easy for today’s news media to satisfy a diverse audience with multiple political affiliations. Reader discretion advised.
IN retaliation to recent media reports which hinted the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) shooting suspect as a former tahfiz school leaver in their headlines, pro-opposition netizens have chastised Astro Awani for deliberately ‘hiding’ the identity of the woman suspect arrested for allegedly splashing hot water on a disabled man (OKU) with Down Syndrome.
Leading the pack is Anti Cyber Trooper (@genz20001) who ticked off the Malay language news portal for not “stating it clearly” that the suspect “is a Chinese woman who is a SJKC (Chinese-type national school) product and a DAP voter from Penang”.
“But when it concerns Muslims, the media would gladly state (on their headlines) tahfiz, pondok or religious school leavers or even linked them to Kelantan,” penned the netizen on X (previously Twitter).
Kenapa awani tak tulis penjenayah tersebut adalah seorang wanita cina produk sjkc dan pengundi DAP dari pulau pinang?
Time orang Islam pandai pulak dia tulis lulusan tahfiz lah ,pondok lah, Sekolah agama lah, Kelantan https://t.co/NMKruKDE8u
— Anti Cyber Trooper (@genz20001) April 20, 2024
For context, the 39-year-olf suspect was detained at 9.21pm in the vicinity of an apartment building in Jalan Rajawali, Penang on Friday (Aug 19) night to facilitate investigations into the incident, according to Penang Barat-Daya deputy police chief Jafri Md Zain.
CCTV footage showed that only the suspect and the 33-year-old victim who was returning to his apartment on the 16th floor were in the lift at the time of the incident.
A neutral netizen attempted to show that “criminals come from all races” by highlighting a somehow similar incident whereby a mother was jailed for three years but to avail.
Many seemingly opposition-slant netizens felt it was unjust that the Astro Awani report only identified the suspect as a woman but refrained from divulging her race or which school had she studied in.
At least the mildest option – according to one netizen – is for Astro Awani to mention “Penang” in its headline.
One the contrary, a netizen offered his two cents as to how the headline would he coined if the suspect were to be a tahfiz school leaver.
This is when the racial background of the editor or the media owner is dragged into the on-going polemic. – April 21, 2024
Main image credit: Berita Harian
