Dr. Farish A Noor

After more than three months of sensational and lopsided media coverage, the show trial of ex-Deputy Prime Minister Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim has now reached a new peak (or rather, low) in bad taste and hyperbole. As newspapers and news channels both in Malaysia and abroad televised images of bedsheets and mattresses being brought in and out of the court room, the Malaysian and international community gasped in shock and tittered in amusement. The only question that remains now is: 'How much lower can this entire spectacle sink before it loses all credibility altogether?' 

No doubt the media has a large role to play in this entire episode, and if the trial of Anwar Ibrahim has been blown out of proportion and distorted beyond recognition, it is the media that is largely to blame. 

Taking their cue from the media trial of American President Bill Clinton, the Malaysian press has sought from the very beginning to turn the trial of Anwar Ibrahim into an equally scandalous and sensational affair. This was no doubt thanks to the prompting of the powerful political and business elites who have a direct control of the local media and were keen to use it as a tool to destroy a political opponent of theirs. It was very clear that from the outset of the crisis, the local media was being utilised as an effective tool to discredit the ex-Deputy PM and to humiliate him publicly. The media was also used instrumentally to sway public opinion against Dato' Seri Anwar, even before he was taken to court to face trial. 

However, the net effect has been counter-productive in the long run. What it has actually done is obfuscate matters even further, distract the public's attention from crucial evidence and testimonies that ought to be understood seriously, and make impossible any serious debate on the matter at hand. The entire trial has now been taken over by a media circus, which has trivialised the proceedings and turned the trial of Anwar Ibrahim into a duel between caricatured heroes and villians. 

The foreign media has merely followed in the tracks of the local press, and reported matters according to the tone that has been set by the local media themselves. If the Malaysian press cannot show restrain and professionalism by reporting matters in an open, unbiased and objective manner, how are we to expect the foreign media to do so? 

The time has come to end this media circus and for both local and foreign journalists to take the trial of Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim as the serious matter that it is. For what is at stake is the credibility of not only the Malaysian press, but also the institutions of the Malaysian state such as the Police and Judiciary, and in the end the Malaysian government itself. 

Dr. Farish A Noor is Secretary-General of the International Movement for a Just World. He is also a lecturer at the Centre for Civilisational Dialogue, University of Malaya.