Blogging with a Conscience

Much has been reported about the evil that bloggers do.

Reading some of the comments and insults one can read in various blogs, it could be a sign of intense frustration that some writers feel about the situation that Malaysia is in.

Mature readers should be able to discern fact from fiction but sometimes we know truth can be stranger than fiction. Perhaps if we have a Freedom of Information Act, more of the population will be able to understand government policies better.

Better still, it will help to keep more people honest if they know whatever they deliberated on will be public knowledge in 15 or 20 years time. Nowadays even local council meetings are not open to the public and most contract awards are made in “secret” meetings.

We have been asked to refer to mainstream media like the newspapers and television but the frequent reports of people being “misquoted” on contentious matters indicate that many reporters are poorly trained or the official really does not know what he is talking about.

However this incident indicates that even newspapers sometimes do the wrong thing. Here we have a criminal being exposed before the police are in a position to nab here. Can such an expose show that she was aided by the newspaper to escape?

To me the proper course of action was for the newspaper to disclose to the police first who would give them the scoop on the story. This means that the local police would have contacted the police in India and closed all escape routes before arresting the suspect.

Or does the newspaper also want to boost sales with a series on future revelations in India? We can call it “The Fugitive – Bollywood Bombshell ”.