威權統治夾縫中的奇葩－－馬來西亞獨立運動方興未艾

Rose Amongst the Throns: Malaysia's Independent Media Movement and its Resilience

本文介紹馬來西亞的獨立媒體運動，首先從馬來西亞媒體法律規管環境及媒體業所有權壟斷現象，讓讀者瞭解馬來西亞的獨立媒體運動是在嚴苛的新聞自由環境中萌芽與成長。本文也將剖析過去十年來的政治演變，如何催化獨立媒體的普及性與提高社會認受程度。此外，介紹獨立媒體運動時，不會侷限於「華人」或「中文」媒體，而是一併介紹非中文圈子的經驗；這是因為華人雖然是第二大族群，但中文畢竟不是這個多族群國家的共通語文，中文獨立媒體的數量屈指可數、可參考經驗不多，倘若將討論範圍侷限於華人和中文媒體，將會造成見樹不見林的缺憾。

This article provides an account of Malaysia's independent media movement. It begins with a discussion of the legal control and the monopoly of media ownership in Malaysia, hence that one may better understand the harsh environment for press freedom in which the independent media has budded and evolved. This article then analyzes how the changes of political atmosphere in the past decade have made independent media popular, and how the members of public have widely accepted them. As the Mandarin Chinese language is not the official common language for Malaysians and there is a very limited number of Chinese independent media, a narrowlyfocused discussion on whether the so-called 'Ethnic-Chinese media' or 'Chinese-language media' might possibly limit the cases of reference and inhibit a holistic understanding of the Malaysian media environment. Under such circumstances, the discussion also includes the experience of non- Chinese actors.