KUALA LUMPUR: Tuesdays have been declared a paper-free day by the Committee to Boycott the Mainstream Media to send a message that the people want honest and credible reporting in light of misinformation and dishonest news.

Committee chairperson Haris Ibrahim of the  People's Parliament project, announced the boycott following the spate of reports in the print media that continues to downplay “issues of grave concern to the public and their lack of transparency in reporting national scandals.”

Some of these issues are the crowd size during the BERSIH organised rally in November, the absence of reporting of public interest issues like postal voters in Ipoh Timur and the Port Klang Free Zone project where the former and current transport ministers have been implicated in a scandal.

“We want responsible, ethical news reporting. Balanced and unbiased,” Haris said at a press conference to launch the boycott on 28 January.

He said the long term goal of the boycott was to free the media of the government controls and extended beyond the general elections expected in the near future.

“This is a civil society initiative to say that enough is enough. The mood of the rakyat is that we are ready to reclaim our spaces as guaranteed in the Federal Constitution.

“But while the message is directed to the authorities, the mainstream media must recognise there are ethical standards they must abide to,” he said.

Haris said the committee of eight people, mainly bloggers, was set up in December  following comments and feedback in The People's Parliament blog where “there was a genuine concern in society over how news reported by the mainstream media did not always tally with facts.”

As part of the launch, the organisers sent SMSes to the editors of The Star, the New Straits Times, Berita Harian and Bernama to spread the message on the boycott.

Asked if it was ironical that the organisers would invite the media to cover a boycott of their product, Haris said it was important that the mainstream media understood the issue and that journalists knew they had the support of the public.

An online petition was also launched calling for the boycott of the mainstream media.

Ends.