52 years ago, on 1 September, newspapers heralded the birth of a new nation comprised of peoples of multiple ethnicities. Today, the media buzzword is 1Malaysia, a concept introduced by the government of the day as an affirmation of the various ethnic groups that make up the nation.

That the concept itself is needed five decades after Independence is a reflection of the deteriorating state of race relations in the country.

For media watchers, it brings to question the role that the media has played as both shaper and mirror of society, constrained as they may be by the sociopolitical and ownership demands of the environment in which it operates. How has the media coverage of ethnic relations been? What are the challenges journalists face when it comes to reporting on matters that involve the apparently still-sensitive issue of ethnicity? What are the ways of providing space for meaningful discussion on ethnic issues without distilling the truth of the story? Is this issue of media representation of ethnic groups a concern across Malaysia or is it only a peninsular preoccupation?

Looking ahead, how can the media reflect the commonalities that the 1Malaysia concept strives to highlight above the differences that are nevertheless an essential part of what makes our nation? What are the lessons we can take from our neighbour Indonesia, which has experienced some of the most violent ethnic/religious conflicts in the region, but whose civil society organisations – including media – have risen to the challenge of mediating for peace?

One of the breakthroughs was in Ambon, where a bloody three-year inter-religious conflict that got the media taking sides and fanning fires, also gave birth to the Maluku Media Center which was established to promote peace journalism.

Find out more at our forum:

Building Peace Across Communities

When: 8 May 2009 (Saturday); 10.30am-1.30pm

Where: The Annexe Gallery, 2nd Floor, Central Market Annexe, Jalan Hang Kasturi, Kuala Lumpur.

We'll also be launching our yearly report, Freedom of Expression in Malaysia 2009: An Annual Review by CIJ.

Confirmed Panellists:

• Ms Insany Syahbarwati, head of the Maluku Media Center, Ambon, Indonesia
• Dr Mustafa K. Anuar, communication studies lecturer

• Ms Jacqueline Ann Surin, editor of The Nut Graph (www.thenutgraph.com)
• Ms Prangtip Daoreung, Asian Public Intellectuals Fellow

Programme:

1. Presentation by Insany Syahbarwati of the Maluku Media Center

2. Set questions for all panellists

3. Questions from the floor

4. Launching of Freedom of Expression in Malaysia 2009: An Annual Review by CIJ

5. Presentation of tokens of appreciation to panellists

6. Lunch

This event is being produced with the financial assistance of the European Union. The contents of this event are the sole responsibility of Centre for Independent Journalism and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the European Union. 

Supported in part by a grant from Foundation Open Society Institute (Zug).

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Biodata of panellists

Insany Syahbarwaty is an Indonesian correspondent with SUNTV for Maluku. She has worked in various media outlets, from print to television, covering Maluku and Makassar since 1999. She has done research on the dilemma of Maluku journalists caught between criminality and uncertainty, and has written a book, Mozaik Pers di Bumi Raja-Raja (Press Mosaic on the Land of Kings). She is also the head of the Maluku Media Centre, which was set up by the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI), Indonesia, to promote peace journalism in the area following the bloody conflict between Christians and Muslims at the turn of the century.

Jacqueline Ann Surin is the co-founder and editor of The Nut Graph. She is an award-winning Malaysian journalist who co-founded MalaysiaVotes.com with Cindy Tham and Danny Lim in early 2008. A journalist since 1994 first with The Star, then The Edge and theSun, she is also the author of Shape of a Pocket. She gained an M.A. in Media Studies at Sussex University in England as a Chevening scholar, and studied journalism in the United States under the Hubert Humphrey Fellowship. In 2007, she received the Excellence in Opinion Writing Award from the Society of Publishers in Asia for her Shape of a Pocket column which she continues to keep at The Nut Graph. She was also named by London-based ARTICLE 19 as the Pioneering Women’s Voices Candidate for Malaysia in commemoration of International Women’s Day in 2007.

Mustafa K. Anuar teaches communication studies at the School of Communication in Universiti Sains Malaysia. In 2005-2007, he coordinated a research project on ‘Disseminating Peace in Southeast Asia’, with an emphasis on ‘peace journalism’. With fellow researchers from Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia, this project examined how conflicts were covered by journalists in the region. He co-authored with Eric Loo a book, published this year, called Journalism in Good Faith: Issues and Practices in Religion Reporting. 

Prangtip Daoreung is a Thai freelance journalist/columnist who has written about the region for the Matichon news site, Inter Press Service, Far Eastern Economic Review, Asia Magazine and the Consortium of Investigative Journalists, and contributed essays to several media books. She has also done research for the Asian Media Information and Communication Centre (AMIC), among others, and facilitated workshops on investigative journalism and peace journalism. An Asian Public Intellectuals Fellow, she studied peace negotiations between Aceh and the Indonesian government as well as of the Communist Party of Malaya and the Malaysian government. She is part of a group of journalists who won the 2007 Sigma Delta Chi Award for Investigative Reporting, by the Society of Professional Journalists (Indianapolis), and the IRE Award for Online Category, by Investigative Reporters And Editors, Inc. (Columbia, Missouri), for the series “Collateral Damage: Human Rights and U.S. Military Aid Before and After 9/11”. She is the first country director for Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA).