From Malaysia Factbook
| "Utusan Malaysia's editor-in-chief agreed in court that the newspaper did not give balanced coverage to reports between the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition and federal opposition Pakatan Rakyat (PR)." — The Malaysian Insider, 13 August 2012
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| "Utusan Malaysia's circulation figures are steadily declining and the paper has reportedly been suffering losses of up to RM20 million since 2009. Figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulation showed that the paper’s daily sales have shrank 20% between June 2006 and June 2010." — Free Malaysia Today [1]
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Utusan Malaysia (formerly known as Utusan Melayu) is a pro-UMNO Malay-language newspaper in Malaysia. UMNO presently owns 49.77% stake in Utusan.[2] First published in Jawi, the newspaper is now published in romanised letters, and is still the No. 1 selling Malay-language daily in Malaysia. Its earlier name, Utusan Melayu, however, has been retained for its weekly Jawi script supplement. From one of Malaysia's top circulation papers, Utusan Malaysia' sales has nose-dived, falling from a height of 350,000 copies in daily circulation to less than half the numbers. The Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) figures for the year ended 30 June 2010 showed that its circulation had dropped to 170,558, as compared to 181,346 the previous year.[3]
2. UMNO's tight control of Utusan: As UMNO's mouthpiece and de facto newsletter, the party's top leaders, including Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, hold weekly meetings to set the agenda for the daily. In these meetings, UMNO leaders set the general tone as to what issues to run, having earlier decided that every issue shall run for 3 days before dropping it completely.[4]
3. Controversy:
- Utusan Malaysia, not unaccustomed to controversy, told Barisan Nasional (BN) in the editorial of its weekend edition, Mingguan Malaysia, on 17 April 2011 to ignore the Chinese community for not supporting the ruling coalition in Sarawak state election the previous day. The Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) immediately slammed Utusan Malaysia for labelling Chinese voters in Sarawak as ungrateful. MIC's publicity and communication chief, S Vell Paari, said that he was saddened by the article and stressed that voters of any race should not be penalized or condemned for exercising their democratic rights which is enshrined in the Federal Constitution.[5] Vell Paari said that it was incumbent upon an elected government to usher in development and cannot expect gratitude in return.
- On 18 April 2011, Assistant Chief Editor, Datuk Zaini Hassan wrote in his Cuit column, calling for a "1Melayu, 1Bumi movement", involving all Malay parties as a defensive front against the Democratic Action Party (DAP), which it claims was intent on toppling the country's Malay leadership.
- Christian Malaysia claim: On 7 May 2011, Utusan Malaysia wrote "Kristian Agama Rasmi?" ("Malaysia, a Christian country?") on its front page, allegedly to strike fear into the Malay-Muslim populace of Malaysia in order to win back support for UMNO.[6] more... at Chronology
External links
Malaysia (as of 2005)
