Media Prima Berhad has just announced that it incurred a first

quarter loss of RM23 million. MPB is the owner of TV3 and the
first steps to take to avoid or minimise further losses are to
examine how its tv stations like TV3 are operated.

TV3 today is pretty much run by people who still think that it
is a private tv operator owned by some reclusive tycoon who is
perhaps a local version of Howard Hughes.

TV3 is very much known for its provincial style of reporting,

whether it's on the subject of current news coverage or the
manner in which its sports newscasters presented sports news
or its unabashed fondness at regurgitating mundane slogans.

The tv station is never hesitant in conveying to the public

its stand on the local politics in the country. The station
belongs to a public company, yet when doing reporting on the
local politicians, it would never hesitate to put aside the
critical journalistic professionalism expected of it by the
public.

Minority and opposition politicians are regularly lambasted

in its news broadcasts, with words like 'uncouth', 'disloyal,
'rude', 'unpatriotic' being liberally used against them. At
the same time, the station does not find anything bad or rude
with its habit of frequently mouthing words like 'kaum' and
'bangsa' in its programmes or bulletins.

Try to imagine tv stations eleswhere using words like 'race'

or 'ethnic background' with a round the clock regularity. It
would have created an almighty uproar or even a riot. But in
this place TV3 is acting like a reflecting echo of TV1 and
getting away with it. TV1 is controlled by the Ministry of
Information on the behalf of the government and therefore
it is naturally inclined to belittle minority or opposition
groups but the same should not be the case for TV3.

TV3 is also guilty of a lack of professionalism in its sports

coverage. When a certain foreign team was not present to take
part in The Proton sports meet, the station was quick to give
out a presentation about the need to request the world body
for possible sanctions or punishment for future absences but
just on the eve of the current Sudirman meet, the station was
suggesting that the meet needed to be postponed or cancelled.
There is suspicion that such behaviour by TV3 was born out of
spite or ill will. Or just plain bad journalism.

Previously, the station was fond of labelling a top player

belonging to a foreign country as 'conceited' after that player
began defeating our top player too often. It only served to
reflect the shallow and narrow nature of the station's news
editors. Surely, they must have never heard of that vitally
important word: 'professionalism'.

Where is the 'Budi bahasa budaya kita" stuff ? Never heard

of it ? Never knew about 'politeness & courtesy our culture'
slogans from the MOI ?
It is a good thing that our Sudirman team lost 2 - 3 in its
first match and 0 - 3 in their semi-final match.

It also serves to remind us that we should not be encouraging

our young people to take up sports like badminton, divng, or
squash and tennis. They should be encouraged to go for sports
that are related to martial arts. The high crime rate in the
country now necessitates this particular approach to sports.
Schools in the country should start to form sports clubs that
cater to the learning of martial arts and not badminton or
some other useless activities.

MPB should re-examine why stations like TV3 are not that very
popular with advertisers nowadays. The provincial nature of
its news reports and the narrow-mindedness of its newscasting
crew are among the main reasons for the fall in its popularity
and the consequent fall in revenue.

MPB should do a shake-up of TV3 and clean out the dirt.