They changed the way that reporters work

The recent December floods in Johor, south Malaysia, bought havoc and destruction in term of human life and property. Rapid rising floodwaters caught the residents unawares, and many were stranded in ceilings and roof top.

A blogger set up a Chinese-language blog(www.segamat.8talk.net/)and reports on the flood situation in Segamat. He used mobile phone to take photos and posted it to his blog. Apart from this, he also uploaded the flood’s video clip that was taken by some university student. The blog also provided vital information on affected flood areas, water levels and route guides.

The blogger exposed that army is demanding RM250 from the flood victims in return for aid to cross the river by boat. A Member of Parliament, Teresa Kok (http://teresakok.com) who viewed this message in the blog, released a press statement to all the media, urged the government to investigate this matter. However, the Defence Minister denied the allegation.

A Chinese newspaper, Huang Ming daily, interviewed the flood victim, Wong Yee Ken in Segamat. Wong confirmed a military officer took bribe from him during the flood on December 31, 2006. Consequently, he lodged a police report on how he was forced to bribe a military officer to take food and drinks to his customers and staff who were trapped in his hair salon and also to rescue them. Now an investigation is pending.

In this case, it showed the impact of citizens or bloggers using mobile phone, digital camera to capture images, or exposing scandal either sending them to media or posting it to their own blog, play an important role in revealing information to the public. Many Malaysia news organizations turned to photographs or video clip taken by amateurs to supplement coverage of event like the recent case of the visual of a women detainee forced to do nude squats in a police lock-up and several violence involving students in schools.

Malaysian famous blogger,Jeff Ooi said,the citizens’ submission to media will not be as moblogger or blogger –too gratification for the citizens. When the photographs or video clip go to mainstream, the editors will review the submissions and select some to place on pages with relevant news articles, just as professional photographs and video clips are woven into their news sites today.

Another question that has to be raised is whether sufficient verification of these incidents was first carried out. In view of the sophistication involved in manipulating pictures and video, so the media should verify the accuracy and truthfulness of the photograph, video footage, source and information.

At all times, the privacy and right of the individual should be considered when media or blogger use photos or video footages taken by amateurs to supplement the media coverage.