Controversy Issue Raised by Makkal Osai

Makkal Osai suspended
I am certain that everyone know religions issues remain sensitive in Malaysia throughout the years of independence.

According to the article - Makkal Osai suspended, one of the Tamil daily newspapers in Malaysia, Makkal Osai had been suspended for one month.


This is due to the controversy inssue raised by printing a caricature of Jesus Christ holding a cigarette in one hand and a bear can on another. It has contravened a permit condition under subsection 6(1) of the Printing press and Publications Act 1984.

The apology came a day after the publication of the offending picture, Makkal Osai apologized for the oversight, with its general manager S.M. Periasamy saying the picture was mistakenly inserted by a graphic artist (Thestaronline.com 2007).

Cultural and religion issue

From this scenario, it shows that the graphic artist does not acknowledge on others culture background and religions as it lead to this controversy issue regarded to cultural differences. This is due to misunderstanding of Christian culture and the context in holy bible.

According to Hayness, something that is considered blasphemy can vary between religious groups and people (cited in Micheal 2007). In this case, there was also similar case back to February 2006, whereby Sarawak Tribune daily newspaper got shut down and suspended after reprinting the caricatures of Prophet Mohammed (Halifaxlife.com 2006).

My verdict

In my personal view, I think that the act of Makkal Osai by publishing the illustration of Jesus Christ is unethical and wrong. They might merely want to add in some entertainment content in the magazine.

However, this had seriously violates others people culture and religious. As suggested by Feijter (2008), “exploitation of religious themes or persons for the selling of products” is deemed as morally wrong and it should not be done by anyone.

Conversely, I think that Makkal Osai did practice good ethics in publishing as expressed regret for using the picture to depict the saying under ‘Today’s Thoughts’ on the top left hand corner of the front page (Thestaronline.com 2007).

According to Weber (1995), right and ethical thing that should be considered by everybody is taking responsibility for one’s action. In this case, Makkal Osai had made a decent apologized to the Christians on what was being published on the magazine.


References

Feijter, I 2008, ‘The Art of Dialogue: Religion, Communication and Global Media Culture, LIT Verlag Berlin-Hamburg-Münster’, viewed 9 June 2009,
http://books.google.com/books?id=gq2yJFu3EUAC&printsec=frontcover

HalifaxLive.com 2006, Prophet Mohammed Cartoons: Cencorship in Malaysia, Indonesia, Algeria and Yemen, updated 10 February 2006, viewed 9 June 2009, http://www.halifaxlive.com/content/view/523/2/

Michael, M 2007, ‘Freedom of Religion Confronts Journalism’, BCHeights.Com, viewed 9 June 2009, http://media.www.bcheights.com/media/storage/paper144/news/2007/03/26/News/Freedom.Of.Religion.Confronts.Journalism-2791570-page2.shtml

Thestaronline.com 2007, ‘Makkal Osai Suspended’, updated 8 August 2007, viewed 9 June 2009, http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/8/25/nation/18696017&sec=nation

Weber, J H 1995,’Ethics in scientific and technical communication’, WISENET Journal, vol. 38, pp. 2-4, viewed 9 June 2009, http://www.jeanweber.com/newsite/?page_id=22