Reflections

malaysiakini organised a 2 days ‘news writing’ class on 14 and 15 aug. at its premise. 14 CJ from different states attended the class. conducted by an ex editor who has over 20 years of experience.

the trainer was good. she presented and talked in a lively manner and was very spontaneous. during the introduction of participants, i realised that i had attended her class before 2 years ago, organised by cahayasuara communications department, a catholic social communication department. (will give the link and the write up of the class i took in 2008 towards the end).

one good thing about the class, is that there were lots of practical lessons, which made the class exciting. it would be dead boring if we just sat down and listened and asked. we get to do exercises individually on paper, with a partner on paper, and individually going up the whiteboard to write. then there were the interview parts too (more about it later).

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the first citizen journalist (CJ) conference was held at the annexe central market on 1 and 2 may, in conjunction of world press freedom day which falls on 3 may. over 100 CJ from all over the country attended the conference.

i felt very proud to be among one of those CJ who attended the conference. in fact, james and i were the very first one to arrive… even before the organisers. hehe. actually we intended to go to the GST protest at dataran merdeka before attending the conference but james said to drop in at the conference first. then after dropping in, he felt lazy to go to dataran merdeka! anyway somewhere before the conference started, when shan said he wanted to go, i quickly tagged along with him but then we found out the protest was over.

ok back to the conference. it started after lunch time on saturday, 1 may. where jimmy, my fellow penang lang CJ (where some of us refer to him a ‘tai kor’). was the MC for the event. the first main seminar was just some introduction, briefing and discussion. some CJ shared about their video work (er… they should be more refer to as VCJ acutally – video citizen journalists). those who shared include shan, dave, sharyn.

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On Deepavali Day, 17 October 2009, residents of Pearl Hill Townhouse and Solok Tan Jit Seng in Tanjung Bungah, Penang, organised a protest against dangerous hill slopes development, which they labelled as ‘Deepavali Tea Party’, because the protest was followed by a tea reception.

About 60 residents turned up, supported by the Tanjung Bungah Residents Association (TBRA). They all hold banners and placards with catchy slogans like ‘Hell on earth with Hill Slopes Development’, ‘Mistakes cost lives’.  However, what was more interesting was that some of them were armed with pots and pans, which they will bang hard, making a noisy din, each time a speaker made a pertinent point.

This was the third ‘Tea Party’ in this year, organised by the Tanjung Bungah residents. The first one was on Valentine’s Day, 14 Feb at Chee Seng Gardens, and the second one was at Solok Tan Jit Seng on 23 March.

In the recent Deepavali Tea Party, the residents hope that the State Government will adhere strictly to the newly Cabinet-approved ‘Guidelines for Hillside and Highland Areas Development’ (12/8/09).  which bans any development on slopes of more than 35 degrees gradient.

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The eLawyer – Exabytes Penang Bloggers & Law Forum 2009 held on 28 june at USM see about 50 people in attendance. Citizen Journalists Natasja, Lilian Tan and Lim were there. Met a number of my blogger friends there like Richard Loh, Romerz, Masterwordsmith. Daniel. Chandra from Bangasa Malaysia Penang (Richard is also a Bangsa Malaysia Penang member) came late, just as the last speaker finished speaking. The last speaker was Mr Stephen Tan Ban Cheng, a journalist turned lawyer. I met him before twice at our Bangsa Malaysia Penang meeting (more than a year ago! and I was pleasantly surprised he can recognise me, even remember my name.

At the registration desk, manned by Exabytes staff, we received a nice orange ‘recycling’ bag,’ which contain a pen, a notebook, 2 desk calendars and of course Exabytes pamphlet announcing its latest promotion.

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