Free Malaysia Today (FMT) is an independent, bilingual news online portal with content, in both English and

Bahasa Malaysia Malaysian Malay ( ms, Bahasa Melayu Malaysia), also known as Standard Malay (Malay: ''Bahasa Melayu Standard''), ( English translation: Malaysian language), or simply Malay, is a standardized form of the Malay language used in Malaysia (as o ...

(Malay), with a focus on Malaysian current affairs, published since 2009."Archived Web Site: Free Malaysia Today"
archives of the United States

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

, retrieved 2 February 2020 It is one of

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

's most accessed news sites with monthly visits of 11.83 million.Lumsden, Linda J. (

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. T ...

)
"How Independent? An Analysis Of GE13 Coverage By Malaysia's Online News Portal Coverage"
'' Jurnal Komunikasi / Malaysian Journal of Communication,'' Jilid 29(2) 2013: 1-30, retrieved 2 February 2020Hussein. Eliza Ezzauddin (Faculty of Communication and Media Study,

Universiti Teknologi Mara The MARA Technological University ( Malay: ''Universiti Teknologi MARA''; Jawi: اونيۏرسيتي تيكنولوڬي مارا; abbr. UiTM) is a public university based primarily in Shah Alam, Selangor. It was established to help rural Mala ...

(UiTM), Shah Alam, Malaysia.
"Journalism Ethics, Attitude on New Media Journalism and the New Media Readers,"
'' International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences,'' Vol. 8, No. 6, June 2018, pp.530-552, E-ISSN: 2222-6990, (PDF a
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Eliza_Ezzauddin_Hussein/publication/334239271_Journalism_Ethics_Attitude_on_New_Media_Journalism_and_the_New_Media_Readers/links/5d4a45c24585153e5941495c/Journalism-Ethics-Attitude-on-New-Media-Journalism-and-the-New-Media-Readers.pdf
] retrieved 2 February 2020

Origins and early history

''Free Malaysia Today'' emerged from the aftermath of the 1990s Reformasi (Malaysia), Reformasi period in

Malaysian history Malaysia is located on a strategic sea lane that exposes it to global trade and various cultures. The name "Malaysia" is a modern concept, created in the second half of the 20th century. However, contemporary Malaysia regards the entire history ...

, during which

's government, under Malaysian prime minister

Mahathir Mohamad Mahathir bin Mohamad ( ms, محاضير بن محمد, label= Jawi, script=arab, italic=unset; ; born 10 July 1925) is a Malaysian politician, author, and physician who served as the 4th and 7th Prime Minister of Malaysia. He held the office ...

, attacked various journalistic media in response to their efforts to investigate the government -- particularly its prosecution of Malaysian deputy prime minister

Anwar Ibrahim Anwar bin Ibrahim ( ms, انور بن ابراهيم, label= Jawi, script=arab, italic=unset, IPA: ; born 10 August 1947) is a Malaysian politician who has served as the 10th Prime Minister of Malaysia since November 2022. He served as the 12 ...

."New look for ''Malaysia Today,'' look out for ''FreeMalaysiaToday'' site"
8 November 2009, ''

Malaysia Today ''Malaysia Today'' is a Malaysian news blog founded in August 2004. Founding ''Malaysia Today'' was launched about two weeks before the release of Anwar Ibrahim from prison on 2 September 2004; Anwar was once Deputy Prime Minister, but fell ...

,'' full text a
https://uppercaise.wordpress.com/2009/11/08/new-look-for-malaysia-today-look-out-for-freemalaysiatoday-site/
retrieved 2 February 2020 At that time (and reportedly as recently as 2013) most of Malaysia's mainstream media -- including principal newspapers and the country's four main TV stations -- were heavily dominated by ownership of, or affiliation with, Malaysia's ruling long-time ruling

Barisan Nasional The National Front ( ms, Barisan Nasional; abbrev: BN) is a political coalition of Malaysia that was founded in 1973 as a coalition of centre-right and right-wing political parties. It is also the third largest political coalition with 30 se ...

(National Front) party ("BN") and its coalition. This led to public concerns that objective media coverage of political issues was not happening. During this period of BN-party media domination and suppression (coincidentally during the rise of the

World Wide Web The World Wide Web (WWW), commonly known as the Web, is an information system enabling documents and other web resources to be accessed over the Internet. Documents and downloadable media are made available to the network through web se ...

), several prominent

online media Digital media is any communication media that operate in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital media can be created, viewed, distributed, modified, listened to, and preserved on a digital electronics device. ' ...

sites emerged in Malaysia -- featuring news, commentary and investigative journalism -- including ''

Malaysian Mirror Malaysian may refer to: * Something from or related to Malaysia, a country in Southeast Asia * Malaysian Malay, a dialect of Malay language spoken mainly in Malaysia * Malaysian people, people who are identified with the country of Malaysia rega ...

, Malaysian Insider,'' and the ''

Nut Graph In journalism, the nut graph or nut graf (nutshell paragraph) is a paragraph that explains the context of the story. The term can be spelled many different ways. In many news stories, the essential facts of a story are included in the lead, the ...

.'' These sites were not subject to the same restrictive laws and regulation as mainstream media, enabling greater editorial freedom for the online media. Among these new sites was '' FreeMalaysia.com'' -- particularly noted for its aggressive exposés of alleged corruption in Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's administration. ''FreeMalaysia.com'' was then accused by the government of being a threat to "national security." The site eventually discontinued operations, but has been described as the "predecessor" of ''Free Malaysia Today''. ''Free Malaysia Today'' launched in November 2009 with several veteran news media figures, most notably Mohsin Abdullah (former news editor of NTV7, and contributor to MySinchew and ''Malaysian Insider''.) The publication was intended to serve as a general news site, with Malaysian news and commentary, as well as articles on world news, lifestyle and sports.

Content

While Malaysian politics takes up a big part of its content, the portal has in recent times been focusing on other topics of interest including the state of the economy, property, education as well as legal and social issues. It has a line-up of columnists made up of academics, diplomats, professionals and veteran journalists. In archiving its web pages, the United States

notes that the site "includes coverage of

he Malaysian territories of He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' in ...

Sabah Sabah () is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia located in northern Borneo, in the region of East Malaysia. Sabah borders the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the southwest and the North Kalimantan province of Indone ...

and

Sarawak Sarawak (; ) is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia. The largest among the 13 states, with an area almost equal to that of Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak is located in northwest Borneo Island, and is bordered by the M ...

(

Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and eas ...

)."

Format

For nine years since its launch in 2009, the website followed a simple top-down format, with the "FMT News" app available on Google Play and App Store. On 31 August 2018, it launched a new design with larger font, in a break from its previous style, with larger pictures and more stories placed in prominent positions. FMT also has an RSS Feed, with approximately 168 posts/week, according to the "Sabah Media" blog ''Free Malaysia Today'' i
"Top Malaysian News RSS Feeds for Mobile App Workshop"
30 September 2018, "Sabah Media" blog, retrieved 2 February 2020

Readership

In 2018, Eliza Ezzauddin Hussein, on the Communication and Media Studies faculty of

in Malaysia, did an academic study of the readers of ''Free Malaysia Today'' ("FMT") and its principal rival, '' Siakap Keli'' ("SK") -- based on a survey of approximately 400 readers of the two outlets'

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

sites. Hussein reportedly found that -- in a survey responded to mostly by women aged 26 to 40, predominantly Malays with a bachelor's degree, and mostly students -- the ''FMT'' readers'

ethnicity An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...

tended to be 44%

Malay Malay may refer to: Languages * Malay language or Bahasa Melayu, a major Austronesian language spoken in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore ** History of the Malay language, the Malay language from the 4th to the 14th century ** Indonesi ...

and 31% alaysianChinese. It further found that the ''FMT'' readers were more highly educated (noting that 91% of them "have bachelor and master degree"), and most (69%) were working. She found ''FMT'' readers more open to comment, and to participation in public discussions on social media, than ''SK'' readers.

Election coverage

2013 general election

Malaysia' 2013 general election ("GE13"), held on 5 May 2013, was a pivotal event for Malaysia's online media, including ''Free Malaysia Today'' -- serving to bring Malaysia's online media into a mainstream role in Malaysia's media community. During the official two-week campaign, Malaysia's three largest, most-influential, online-only news websites -- ''

Malaysiakini ''Malaysiakini'' (meaning in English: "Malaysia Now") is an online news portal published in Malay, English, Chinese and Tamil. Malaysiakini receives over 2.3 million page-views per day on desktop and mobile. Alexa ranked ''malaysiakini.com'' ...

,'' ''The Malaysian Insider'' and ''Free Malaysia Today'' -- experienced millions of

page view In web analytics and website management, a pageview or page view, abbreviated in business to PV and occasionally called page impression, is a request to load a single HTML file ( web page) of an Internet site. On the World Wide Web, a page request ...

s per day. Online media editors asserted they were serving as independent, journalistic "watchdogs" over the government, unlike Malaysia's heavily-regulated traditional mainstream media, most of which had ties to the ruling Barisan Nasional ("BN") party.

2018 general election

Like many other current affairs sites, FMT also witnessed a huge jump in readership in the run-up to the 14th general election as well as in the aftermath, jumping 18 positions to be ranked the 26th most accessed website across all categories in Malaysia. Throughout the election campaign in April and May, its dedicated microsite was a popular medium for breaking news stories, with correspondents placed nationwide reporting on activities by all political parties.

Editorial policy

The FMT editorial policy emphasises balanced reporting and neutrality, although it takes some strong stands on issues of public interest. Its editorials have often criticised politicians from both sides of the divide while taking a stand on controversies including the "fake degree" saga involving a deputy minister in the

Pakatan Harapan The Alliance of Hope ( ms, Pakatan Harapan; abbrev: PH; stylized as HARAPAN) is a Malaysian political coalition consisting of centre-left political parties which was formed in 2015 to succeed the Pakatan Rakyat coalition. It has been the r ...

government and the death of a tahfiz (Islamic school) student in April 2017. In May 2017, a year before the general election, it openly urged Pakatan Harapan to announce Dr Mahathir Mohamad as its prime ministerial candidate, setting off a string of criticism on social media with many questioning the website's objectivity. Two weeks after the general election, it assured readers that it was not subservient to any political interests, while questioning a number of media organisations, especially the former mainstream print media which appeared to have "turned around" despite being known for their less than complimentary coverage of the current government leaders during their time in the opposition. Malaysia's "new media" websites, such as FMT, are likely to have less fact-checking than traditional media.

Controversies

Lim Guan Eng's 2015 lawsuit

In early 2015, the newspaper has been sued by Penang Chief Minister

Lim Guan Eng Lim Guan Eng (; born 8 December 1960) is a Malaysian politician and accountant from the Democratic Action Party (DAP), a component party of the Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Bagan, Member of t ...

for its allegedly defamatory content titled "Guan Eng has failed, says NGO". Lim later won the suit and the newspaper was ordered to pay damages for RM300,000 to him. However, in May 2016, the Court of Appeal quashed the RM300,000 in damages awarded to Lim Guan Eng.

Arifai Tarawe's lawsuit

On 21 May 2021, the outgoing

Gombak The Gombak District is an administrative district located in the state of Selangor, Malaysia. The district was created on February 1, 1974, the same day when Kuala Lumpur was declared a Federal Territory. Until 1997, Rawang was the district capi ...

district police chief Arifai Tarawe filed a RM10 million lawsuit against Free Malaysia Today over two articles which suggested that he and the

Royal Malaysian Police The Royal Malaysia Police (often abbreviated RMP) ( ms, Polis Diraja Malaysia (PDRM)), is a (primarily) uniformed national and federal police force in Malaysia. The force is a centralised organisation. Its headquarters are located at Bukit Aman ...

were responsible for the death of A. Ganapathy in police custody. 12 civil society organisations including

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...

Malaysia, the Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ), TENAGANITA,

Suaram Suara Rakyat Malaysia, better known by its abbreviation SUARAM (Malay for "Voice of the Malaysian People"), is a human rights organisation in Malaysia created in 1987 after Operation Lalang, when 106 opposition, unions, activist leaders were de ...

and

Sisters in Islam Sisters in Islam (SIS) is a Malaysia, Malaysian civil society organisation committed to promoting the Women's rights, rights of women within the frameworks of Islam and universal human rights. Its efforts to promote the rights of Muslim women a ...

described his lawsuit as an attack on

media freedom Freedom of the press or freedom of the media is the fundamental principle that communication and expression through various media, including printed and electronic media, especially published materials, should be considered a right to be exerci ...

Business and competition

In 2013, during the online-media rush to cover Malaysia's 2013 general election, FMT reportedly had a staff of thirteen "journalists": five editors, three videographers, three technical experts, and two administrative assistants, headed by editor K. Kabilan. Financing reportedly came from undisclosed investors who aimed to "open up political discourse" in Malaysia. Its headquarters is in

Petaling Jaya ) , website = , image_skyline = , image_caption = ''From top, left to right:Skyline of Petaling Jaya, the 1 Utama Mall integrated with Bandar Utama Station, the Kota Darul Ehsan arch, the Petaling J ...

Selangor Selangor (; ), also known by its Arabic language, Arabic honorific Darul Ehsan, or "Abode of Sincerity", is one of the 13 Malaysian states. It is on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia and is bordered by Perak to the north, Pahang to the east ...

, Malaysia. In 2013, FMT was reportedly the smallest of Malaysia's "three largest and most influential" online-only news outlets -- along with ''

'' and ''The Malaysian Insider.'' In 2018, FMT was -- among "Malaysian new media journalism websites" -- reportedly one of "the two most followed," along with ''Siakap Keli.'' FMT also faces competition from Malaysia's mainstream media -- including principal newspapers, radio and television -- most of which are connected to Malaysia's long-ruling

(National Front) party ("BN"). The country's four main TV stations and leading newspapers have long been heavily dominated by ownership of, or affiliation with, BN and its coalition. In particular, media conglomerate

Media Prima Media Prima Berhad, doing business as Media Prima and stylised as media prima, is a Malaysian media company based in Petaling Jaya, Selangor. It is Malaysia's largest media and entertainment conglomerate with business interests in television, pri ...

, a pro-BN corporation, controls over half of Malaysia's media.

References

19
MalaysiaChronicles

External links

*
archived issues, online
at United States

''Free Malaysia Today'' RSS Feed
(freemalaysiatoday.com/feed + Follow RSS) {{DEFAULTSORT:Free Malaysia Today 2009 establishments in Malaysia Malaysian websites Malaysian political websites