Shareholders of Star Publications reportedly criticised the daily’s editorial direction in its coverage of the recent general election.
Maybe this had something to do with the unease – the share price of Star Publications (M) Bhd over the last one year:
Wong Chun Wai’s admission of the shareholders’ criticism was reported in a Malay Mail report on The Star’s AGM on 22 May 2013.
The Star is owned by the MCA (42 per cent), EPF (10 per cent) and Skim Amanah Saham Bumiputra (10 per cent), according to the firm’s 2012 Annual Report.
“All sort of views were expressed. Some felt we were not fair, but a large number also spoke out and said we did a balanced job. There can never be any uniform view,” Wong was reported to have said.
Anonymous accounts of the AGM posted on blogs and social media, however, suggest the meeting was peppered with sharp questions about the paper’s editorial direction, political advertisements and election coverage.
If you’ve noticed, after the general elections, The Star has tried to restore its crediblity by reporting a little more fairly about Pakatan and other dissenting views.
But is it too little too late? Is this ‘change of heart’ dictated more by a new commitment to ethical journalism or is it more out of concern for declining circulation and its falling share price?
After the election, a relative of mine requested her newspaper vendor to terminate her subscription to The Star.
The puzzled vendor enquired from her, “You are not the only one. Why are others also now terminating the The Star?”
What do you think? Did The Star do a “balanced job” during the general election?
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… political prostitutes n journo-whores. N Star is the people’s toiletpaper.
Harapan saya The Star tak lagi tipu macam Utusan!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SecmBnySAGQ
Since MCA controls the STAR, the “soul” of the star has diminished.
I wonder how much the regime spends subsidising
propaganda papers like Utusan, NST, Malay Mail etc?
Direct subsidies as well as hidden subsidies.
Its not surprising. BUT what is contrasting is that Media Prima was suffering similar pattern before the GE but has rebounded and hitting new highs post GE.. Its a lesson to sycophant politicians especially the likes of Waytha and Sabahan BN parties – when you lose, you do lose, the scraps leftovers are just that..
Stopped reading a long time ago. Wong wrote a disgusting piece of editorial on the eve of the 12th GE. Never expected the tsunami. The next day he started a singing a different song. Expected him to have learned a lesson. But no, he came back with a vengeance for the 13th GE. Have lost all respect for him. He is currently trying to redeem some semblance of respectability( I heard) by trying exclusive articles about Penang historical streets. How sad.
How are the reports ever ‘balanced?’
All this is avoiding the root cause: PPPA. Controling publications through licensing is a violation of the freedom of expression.
Notice that after a break of about 1 month, a certain VVVIP is back in the photos, though no longer daily.
My family subscribed to The Star newspaper from the day it was born. But once it started to publish rubbish and biased news, and everyday photos of Fat Lady Of Malaysia was posted, so much so i dared not look at the front few pages. I only looked for advertisements and classified and sports. But then i realised i was paying for rubbish so we as a family of 6 plus our inlaws totalling 24 families have stopped subscribing to The Star. Serves you right for selling your souls. You are a dead man walking!
Many people shared the same experience.
Now you know why MCA is considering selling The Star as the circulation has dropped.
Why, huh?
The Star newspaper: 75% advertisements, 25% rubbish
Those regular advertisers like Tesco, Giant, Guardian etc PLS advertise more in The Sun to reach your targeted consumers.
The Star has lost its credibility. My news vendor told me so as less and less people are buying.
Stop buying The Star and get free The Sun. May be The Moon a better choice next.
I stopped The Star at the end of May.It was a painful decision.I have been reading The Star for almost 35 years but lately it is no more The Peoples Paper but more of a political party news buletin. Making us fools and thought the readers are leaving in jungle.Anyway it is their newspaper and w have a choice.For Penangites the Malay Mail is throwing in a good offer.One year subscribtion for RM 160 plus delivery to your house and a stand fan free !!!Well I am giving it a try…nothing to lose besides I was paying for rubbish for… Read more »
the malay mail is no different with propaganda… do not waste your rm160,
We shall not be commenting about the star.It is worth a toilet paper…
Anil Long time since you and tunglang last talked about street food (not the one offered free by 1Malaysia NGO). About time to rekindle food talk to alleviate the PRU fatigue? Perhaps you could be interested to know that Singapore (yes, the red dot beat Penang once again) recently organized World Street Food Carnival. The organiser is KF Seetoh (of Makansutra and The Food Surprised! fame) and he even invited Anthony Bourdain! Mr Bourdain mused: “The salvation of the hawkers and hawker centres here and elsewhere – like it or not – is going to be the hipster hawker. They… Read more »
Thanks for reminding me!
I think there could be a worrying trend in Penang: hawker stalls in coffee shops and hawker centres seem to be gradually disappearing. Do you notice that?
UBAH is good for us.
Then how come tak tukar nama? Gerakan sudah tutup kedai, you kata.
I tahu, tukar Ubah K.
Anil
Probably tunglang have long sensed Penang Street Food scene has evolved ?
Roadside kaki lima setting replaced by stalls in air-con malls that we now cannot deny ?
I hope Anil continues to champion local issues; and sometimes light-hearted matters like culture (how about murals in Penang these days) are not so hard to digest like dirty politics in Malaysia ?
Yes, thanks for the reminder. Still finding it hard to come to terms with that missing hawker centre. Tutup kedai because landlord wanted much higher rental.
The shareholders should just dumped the shares and invest in Malaysiakini instead!
Have stopped buying or.reading the Star….. will do without it for the rest of my life. Period.
Ha ha ha ha ha. Don’t be so jealous. Look at The Star circulation and revenue. A high performing dream company in publication business. Criticism is normal even from shareholders. Pakatan got fans everywhere, from working class to wealthy businessmen. Please search and read the sponsors of red bean thingy. Then about the coverage, it was fairly good. The Star even published the U-TURN statement by Dap Johor’s Norman Fernandez that earlier asking people do not vote pas then asking people to vote pas again near election time. People didn’t buy/read the Star please do not talk nonsense. Then, again… Read more »
Advertisement is their main source of revenue and not your subscription
Stupid, without the subscription, soon there will be no advertisement
Hahahaha,batuk,batuk,hahahaha…burp.
Dino wants ghosts to see the adverts.
By the way, Dino, from the comments here, you can see we don’t need a red bean army. Just common sense and a bit of intuition, both of which you sorely lack.
The Star lost its commonsense in the run up to the general elections. Wong Chun Wai must have thought that his readers were the information deprived ignoramus before the advent of the internet to toe the line taken by the brain dead Utusan to spin news which only die hard MCA/UMNO supporters could believe.
The result is disastrous for the Star.
Many ex-subscribers actually want the MCA paper dead!
A great way to restore subscribers’ confidence is to extricate the paper from MCA control and sack Wong Chun Wai.
The Star? Just boycott it for another 3 months folks! Let us do it. We pay good money to buy newspapers, we do not expect to read a political party’s political agenda. And where is the Jocelyn Tan? Just who reads her spins? Just cannot imagine, journalists today are paid to generate … half truths! Do we educate our kids to tell lies to earn a living? Malaysians must boycott The Star, united we stand, let us make it effective folks. Only Gerakan Kid and his team ( ada lagi ka) read The Star, and read that Gerakan wants to… Read more »
I have stopped reading the rubbish along time ago.Period.
There was no balanced reporting during the election period.The paper was disgustingly biased and small minded.
I stopped reading the Star once the reports before GE13 went bias. Once I tried to buy the Star for some news reading post GE13 but after reading 2 pages I regretted almost immediately that I bought the newspaper. Since then I have stopped buying it.
There is really no news worthy nor value in buying this trash paper.
The editors (especially Wong CW) of theStar during the pre election have sold their souls to MCA and BN. The reporting was so biased and disgusting (repulsive should be a stronger word) that the paper has lost all respect from the readers. I always skipped the first 12 pages of the star. Indeed, so much exposure was given to the MCA and its tainted president that it might have directly caused MCA’s early political demise. These editors are beyond redemption, a very strong word to a Christian. Such is the true perception. Whatever the paper tries to do now, however… Read more »
Josawlin and Wong aka batgirl and batman will never resign from the daily Star.