NUJ urges Hattan to issue public apology
SHAH ALAM - Media practitioners are not reality show contestants who can be humiliated in public, National Union of Journalists (NUJ) president Farah Marshita Abdul Patah said today, adding that the act of shaming media workers whether by outsiders, artists, politicians or ministers needed to stop immediately.
She said in the issue involving Astro Awani, NUJ urged singer Datuk Hattan to act more professionally in refusing a question asked whereby he could politely decline the question.
"The action will start a chain of events where after the incident, other people would also act rudely to media personnel.
"Learn to respect each other and set a good example, especially to the younger generation. NUJ believes we need to respect each other," she told Sinar today.
She said this when commenting about the singer's rash act in telling off a news anchor during a news live broadcast yesterday.
Farah said that the singer also needs to issue a public apology as his actions had humiliated the news anchor.
"NUJ urges Hattan to publicly apologise as his action of reprimanding the news anchor during the live broadcast not only embarrasses the news anchor but also belittling the duties of media practitioners.
"In this regards, NUJ praises the news anchor for staying calm and professional despite being shoved with the singer's unintelligent question who accused her of 'not doing her job'," she said.
It was understood that Astro Awani had contacted Hattan to share the story of the late Mael XPDC or his real name Syed Ismail Syed Ibrahim who had recently passed away.
