Comments on: Clarification on the Star’s Gua Tambun article

By: cavingliz

cavingliz — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 04:54:31 +0000

CamArchGrad Says
>Papers have well established procedures for printing corrections and it’s worth a shot.

Sadly Malaysian papers don’t follow procedures. I do freelance writing for the papers and sometimes it is more headache than it is worth. They rarely print corrections, probably cos people have very short memories here! Also the article was published in the section of the paper that is more community based. Msian papers are very strictly censored as well.

But another issue from this article is that the same paper used one of the photos taken on the caving trip and used it to advertise a trekking outing in Penang!!

By: CamArchGrad

CamArchGrad — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 04:23:07 +0000

A very good article on how you can be misrepresented by the media. And what’s even worse is when they intentionally ask you to distort the process to make “better TV”.

I was once working in Germany on Celtic site, and a film crew was filming the excavation. They were angry that a) we didn’t find anything “exciting” and b) we weren’t co-operating, but what can you do when you have a burial and they ask you “Can you poke your trowel in there?” or collapsing a trench wall while trying to get a “shot”…..

I don’t know what the editorial process in Malaysia is, but it’s very important to maintain a constant dialogue and demand access to the article while it’s being written. It sounds like your only recourse is to a) send a letter into the paper, or b) contact the reporter and state your case. Papers have well established procedures for printing corrections and it’s worth a shot.

By: cavingliz

cavingliz — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 09:49:35 +0000

Yes the whole article was a disaster. Totally uninformative, and the little info that was there was mostly wrong. I’m glad you’ve posted the comments. It’s a typical case of “a little knowledge being a dangerous thing”. The reporter gained a bit of knowledge on the day but got it mostly wrong when he wrote the article. I think one reason was it was a totally alien subject to him, plus the fact his English is not too good despite him writing for an English daily. When he phoned me to ask for comments I could tell his English was poor.
I could only laugh at his comments on the seashells. And even the English in the caption was wrong. Maybe the reporter thinks the rock artists painted underwater!!!!!!!

I’m discussing with Hong whether its worth trying to write something else for the Star, although it might just be best to forget it as readers have very short memories and have probably already forgotten the article, especially as no mention was made of the importance of protecting the sites – which was the whole purpose of the visit!

In summary- NEVER BELIEVE WHAT YOU READ IN NEWSPAPERS!