Rising Above the Constraining Environment for Data Journalism
Magazine article on how Malaysian journalists can write data journalism stories in environment with limited media freedom and data availability
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At the publication stage, Malaysian journalists face editorial challenges, with print and television media being owned by the business arms of political parties. This is reflected in the World Press Freedom Report 2021, where Malaysia dropped 18 places, ranking at a lowly 118 out of 180 countries for media freedom.
The challenging environment has however led to Malaysian journalists and civil society developing internationally award-winning innovative methods in sourcing and piecing together the information needed for their data journalism stories. In such a context, the lines between investigative and data journalism become blurred. Investigative journalism techniques are used to find data, and data analysis and data structures become essential tools for investigating ever more complicated systemic corruption and illicit financial flows.