Newsrooms go black and yellow

The International Press Freedom Day on May 3 usually comes and goes with little fanfare, but not this year.

Yesterday Malaysia saw one of the biggest loosely coordinated attempts by journalists to voice up for press freedom and take a firm stand against police harassment.

Newsrooms across the country saw many journalists showing up to work in black tops, a sign of protest, and yellow ribbons, the symbol used for press freedom.

This was a show of solidarity for dozens of their colleagues who were assaulted, intimidated and threatened while covering the Bersih 3.0 rally last Saturday.

Indeed, most of the journalists spotted at a police press conference in Kuala Lumpur yesterday donned black, with photographers tying yellow cloths to their cameras in solidarity.

Some such as those in The Star (left) and major Chinese dailies observed the ‘Media in Black (MIB)' day at their workplace.

The photos were shared on personal social networking sites Facebook and Twitter, while Chinese print media splashed similar photographs on their official Facebook pages.

The Chinese print media, which make up the bulk of those harassed by police on Saturday, came out in full force holding banners for press freedom in front of their offices.

Radio station 988's deejays were also in black and yellow, along with colleagues from news portals Malaysiakini, Merdeka Review, Free Malaysia Today and news channel Astro Awani and even state-owned TV2 (photo above).

NTV7 news anchor Lee Siad Huey on her Facebook page said her colleagues at the Mandarin section went MIB, but lamented the lack of support from their colleagues in other language sections.

The Sun and the Malay Mail (left), both of whom had journalists allegedly assaulted by police on Saturday also saw many dressed in black, along with yellow ribbons.

Even The Sun reporter Radzi Razak, who was hospitalised for injuries sustained on the day posted a photograph of himself dressed in black to commemorate the day on Twitter.

Radzi (left) and al Hijrah cameraperson Mohd Azri Mohd Salleh were hospitalised for injuries sustained during the rally, with the latter attacked by protestors. Radzi was discharged at 7pm Thursday.

The Bersih rally on Saturday marked unprecedented heavy-handedness by the police in dealing with journalists in Malaysia.

Online news portal Malaysiakini held a brief demonstration outside its office yesterday to protest against the increasing violence against journalists (left).

A Malaysiakini photojournalist was arrested and detained for a couple of hours and his camera's memory card seized after he took photos of police beating up Bersih 3.0 protesters.