- The Malaysian Insider
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The Malaysian Insider 
Type Online newspaper Format Online Editor Jahabar Sadiq Associate editor Leslie Lau Managing editors Joan Lau Founded February 25, 2008 Headquarters Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Sister newspapers goreng.my Official website themalaysianinsider.com The Malaysian Insider (also known as TMI or The Insider) is a bilingual news site popular in Malaysia. It has been consistently ranked as one of the top 100 most popular websites in the country with a strong following in Singapore. Alexa ranked The Insider as the 57th most popular website in Malaysia in June 2009.[1] Compete.com estimated that almost 19,000 unique visitors visited the website in April 2009.[2]
Contents
Management
The Malaysian Insider was established by journalist Png Hong Kwang and Sreedhar Subramanian. Png is a journalist while Subramaniam is the former chief operating officer of free-to-air Malaysian television channel ntv7.
It is now being led by chief executive officer and editor Jahabar Sadiq, who has worked as a journalist in Malaysia and the region since 1988. [3]
Joan Lau is the managing editor. She was formerly with the New Straits Times. Aiding her is a executive editor Leslie Lau, a journalist formerly attached to the Straits Times in Singapore.
Editorial
The Insider aims to report "unvarnished take on events and personalities in Malaysia."[3]
The editorial generally maintains a critical stance against both Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat, although it has lately leaned further towards Pakatan Rakyat. During the 2009 Perak constitutional crisis in which Barisan Nasional managed to topple the Pakatan Rakyat state government, frequent hard-hitting editorial pieces calling for the dissolution of the state assembly were published.
News
While the news site runs multiple sections from business to entertainment, political news and commentaries dominate attention.
The organization houses a group of reporters which produces the bulk of its leading domestic new news content. To complement the in-house reporters, The Insider reproduces syndicated material from other established mainstream news organizations like Bernama, Reuters and Associated Press.
Columnists and contributors
The Insider maintains a large roster of columnists from diverse background. Nevertheless, the majority of the columnists do not share the same political positions as Barisan Nasional. Several of the more notable columnists are the member of the Selangor state assemblyman and political secretary to the Selangor Menteri Besar Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad, DAP Member of Parliament Liew Chin Tong, PAS MP Khalid Abdul Samad, UMNO MP Nur Jazlan Mohamed and a former Special Officer to Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Ziad Razak.[4]
Apart from the regular columnists, The Insider publishes letters from readers as well as blog entries.[5]
Publications
In 2009, The Insider published two books. Both compiled selected writings of its columnists.
Controversy
Funding
The funding of the news organization has been a source of much speculation. A number of prominent bloggers based in Malaysia suspected that The Insider was linked to former Editor-in-Chief of New Straits Times, Kallimullah Hassan or UMNO Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin, both considered to be aligned to Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.[citation needed] The allegations were never proved while other rumors continue to circulate linking the organization to other political factions but these have not gained as much traction.
Accusations of bias
UMNO accused The Insider of biased reporting. The party barred The Insider as well as several online news organizations from covering its general assembly held in Kuala Lumpur in 2009.[6]
References
- ^ Alexa. Accessed on June 24, 2009.
- ^ Compete.com. Accessed on June 24, 2009.
- ^ a b "About Us". The Malaysian Insider. http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/about-us. Retrieved 2011-03-28.
- ^ "Opinion". The Malaysian Insider. http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/index.php/opinion. Retrieved 2009-06-24.
- ^ "Breaking Views". The Malaysian Insider. http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/index.php/opinion/breaking-views. Retrieved 2009-06-24.
- ^ Deborah Loh. "Internet media barred from Umno (Updated 6.40pm)". The Nutgraph. http://www.thenutgraph.com/internet-media-barred-from-umno. Retrieved 2009-06-24.
See also
Categories:- Digital newspapers
- Internet in Malaysia
- Malaysian websites
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