# Radio Televisyen Malaysia controversies

This article outlines, in chronological order, the various controversies, criticisms and allegations involving or surrounding Radio Televisyen Malaysia (RTM), a broadcasting department of the Malaysian Government.

## 1980s
### 1982: Coverage of Prophet Muhammad's birthday

In February 1982, RTM's Sabah branch was criticised for its refusal to provide news coverage of the Prophet Muhammad's birthday celebrations in one of the state's districts. This prompted Mohamed Noor Mansor, the then-Sabah Financial Planning and Development Minister said that the broadcaster "had unintentionally refused to cover the event was tantamount to showing gross disrespect to Islam".

### 1982: Sex scandal allegations

In March 1982, RTM embroiled in alleged sex scandal involving a female artistes which were asked to have sexual affair with some producers in an exchange for appearances on RTM programmes. Afterwards, several artistes, including Nora Shamsuddin and Sahara Yaacob has called out to share about their experiences on the matter. The Ministry of Information in its press release said the two other singers Maria Kamal and Aizam Ibrahim have denied allegations in sexual propositioning by RTM producers that they "had apparently made to the press earlier". Following the scandal, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI; now Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission or MACC) have seized thousands of documents and payment vouchers after the complaints made against the RTM producers who were misappropriate the money belongs to the artistes. In May, the then-Deputy Information Minister, Rahmah Othman confirmed that the police have completed investigation on the sex scandal allegations inside RTM while pointed that it "won't hesitate to take immediate action to anyone who were proven to be involved".

### 1985: Tekaria quiz answer controversy

Tekaria, a game show program aired on TV1, one of two RTM's flagship channels, sparked a controversy when one of its contestant, Fahmi Kassim, a clerk, mistakenly answered the Strait of Malacca as "the longest straits in the world" instead of Tartar Straits during the broadcast of 19 June 1985 episode, which was pre-recorded and is a final of 13 episode. The controversy led to the unusual move by RTM to clarify the matter on its news broadcast on 4 July.
In his letter sent to the New Straits Times editor, Fahmi said the Guinness Book of Records listed the Tartar Straits is the world's longest strait at about 800 kilometres and "marginally longer" than the Straits of Malacca. The 31st edition of the book, however, does not mention the Straits' length. RTM later quoted a statement by Malaysian Department of the Naval Hydrography which said the Straits of Malacca "is 176 km longer" than the Tartar Straits. The game show's panel member then expressed his suprised doubt over the answer, said that "this sort of controversy does not happen often". An RTM official said that different references sources "that might give different answer to the same question".

## 1990s
### 1992: Reports on Dili shooting incident

On 23 September 1992, a broadcast of segment on the 1991 Dili shooting incident in East Timor, Indonesia on TV1's 10pm news have caused outrage and sparked protests in Indonesia. The segment shows the Indonesian soldiers opened fire into a group of demonstrators and killing 50 people. It also reported that the republic have raided the East Timor islands and the troops opened fire on local residents.
The then-Information Minister, Mohamed Rahmat explained that the RTM's airing of the segment "was a mistake", while claiming that it is "not intended to embarrass the Indonesian Government". Furthermore, Indonesia has strongly objected over the incident's footage while also claiming it as an "insult" to them. On 27 September, RTM submitted the footage at the Indonesian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur for further investigation. Later on, the investigation of footage's airing was completed and Mohamed said it was made by staffs from RTM's news division who was responsible for the telecast in which he said it is "upon their own consideration". He also said that the Dili incident airings does not reflect the government's stance on the issue. Indonesian Coordinating Minister for Political Affairs and Security, Sudomo assessed that the issue was "considered closed". On 7 October, an RTM senior editor was being transferred to another job following the incident which nearly strained relations between Malaysia and Indonesia.

### 1993: RM100 remuneration controversy

In July 1993, four radio announcers of Radio Tiga Ibukota (RMIK), one of RTM's national radio stations, were called by the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) for interrogation following the RM100 remuneration for an RTM program sponsored by a private company. At the same time, the then-Information Minister, Mohamed Rahmat stressed that any of RTM staffs should not received any incentives while carrying on duties, while stating a day later that the payment is not just involving the radio station, but on the contrary, it is "a practice at district radio stations throughout Malaysia". Three days later, the then-Director General of Broadcasting, Jaafar Kamin were assigned to lead the investigation on the matter to address the issue.
On 21 July, the Ministry of Information said it would submit an investigation report on four RMIK announcers receive RM100 from sponsor company to the then-Chief Secretary of the Government, Ahmad Sarji Abdul Hamid, awhile at the same time, an RTM senior officer have interrogates several of RMIK announcers and officials to gather information on the allegation. Three days later, the ACA reiterated that it would continued the probe on the matter. On 25 September 1993, the Ministry have submitted the report to Ahmad Sarji, but yet to take any disciplinary action against the radio announcers. In October, the ACA proposed a disciplinary action to be taken by the Ministry, which is by suspending the announcer's salary.

### 1996: Patrick Teoh's April Fools' joke

In April 1996, RTM's Radio 4 suspended one of its announcer, Patrick Teoh for a month for pulling an April Fools' joke by announced a non-existent advert about ducks placed on hot plates to make the ducks dance. Teoh also suspended in the same period for breaching its code of ethics. The controversy began when the Grey Advertising, an advertising company responsible for the advert, placed an advertisement in several newspapers looking for ducks to be featured in a commercial for a new snack. The concept was to place ducks on a hot plate, so they would jump about on the plate. Grey Advertising said that the advert is an April Fools joke to celebrate its 10th anniversary.

### 1998: Coverage of Anwar Ibrahim's sodomy trial

In 1998, RTM was accused for "downplaying the report" on former Deputy Prime Minister, Anwar Ibrahim at the time of his sodomy trials in its primetime news. An Utusan Malaysia article quoted that RTM has "shows no journalistic professionalism in not slotting the story as its main news item". Information Minister, Mohamed Rahmat pointed out that the matter is entirely down to possible "misjudgement" while also rejected that certain RTM staffs "were out to sabotage the coverage". The Peninsula Malay Students Union (GPMS) president, Suhaimi Ibrahim urged RTM to be "more proactive in disseminating information on issues of national interest".

## 2000s
### 2001: Anwar Ibrahim as Islamic extremist

In 2001, RTM was accused for defamed former Deputy Prime Minister, Anwar Ibrahim and allegedly labelling him as an "immoral leader" and an "Islamic extremist" in an RTM programs on 4 and 5 September. Anwar subsequently filed a RM100 million defamation suit against the broadcaster, the Broadcasting DG and the Government, but he decided to withdrew the suit three years later, on 23 March 2004.

### 2004: Usage of 'infotainmen' in TV1 slogan

In 2004, TV1 underwent rebranding and launches new slogan, 'Saluran Infotainmen Anda' (Your Infotainment Channel), which drews criticism following the usage of word 'infotainmen'. The then-Deputy Information Minister, Zainuddin Maidin have said that the broadcaster will keep the word in TV1's new slogan. Later, the Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP) stressed that the usage of 'infotainmen' word was "considered unsuitable" and "it is wrong in terms of terminology formation which doesn't signifies a clear meaning", while said that the broadcaster should use 'infohibur' or 'inforia' instead. Zainuddin then reiterated that the word 'infotainmen' is appropriate while "it gets its meaning across well enough", while DBP board of management member, Johan Jaffar defend the word's usage and said that he "does not see any argument to reject that word". The Ministry of Information hold on its stance that it remained use that word as it "became a technical term used worldwide, including Germany, Japan and China". The issue resolved two years later, in 2006 when TV1 changes its slogan to "Saluran Inforia Anda" on 1 April.

### 2006: Airing of Prophet Muhammad's caricature

On 3 February 2006, RTM came under fire following the unintentional airing of a caricature insulting the Prophet Muhammad in TV2's Mandarin News. Following the incident, RTM's managements was called out to give an explanation regarding the screening of Muhammad's caricature. Former Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohamad have ordered that the RTM officials who responsible for the caricture airing, should be suspended from duty.

### 2008: "Aku Bukan Musuh Harta"

In December 2008, "Aku Bukan Musuh Harta" ("I'm Not an Enemy of the Wealth"), a poetry song performed by Malaysian nasyid group, Algebra featuring Malaysian folk group, Kopratasa where its lyrics written by former Perlis Mufti, Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin was banned by RTM from airing on its radio and TV networks. The song's ban received much criticism from many. The then-Deputy Director-General of Broadcasting, Adilah Shek Omar said that the reason for the ban was due to its "rough lyrics". Mohd Asri later question on why the broadcaster ban the song with lyrics he wrote whereas it has a "higher moral values" and "does not dedicated to certain parties". He also pointed that the song has a good lesson for many.

## 2010s
### 2010: Axing of the Galeri Mandarin Nasional's Bakun Dam documentary

On 28 April 2010, RTM's former Broadcasting Director-General Ibrahim Yahya have ordered a TV2's Chinese-language documentary series Galeri Mandarin Nasional to be axed from airing immediately after only two episodes, which aired on 26 and 27 April. The 10-episode series reveals the hardship of more than 10,000 natives of Belaga, Sarawak, after their forced relocation to Sungai Asap and Sungai Koyan in 1998 owing to the construction of the Bakun Dam. The series' producer Chou Z Lam reveals that the "documentary over the impact of the Bakun Dam on indigenous people in Sarawak was cancelled" due to "RTM's leadership's fears that it would negatively impact the Sibu by-election outcome". As a result of the documentary's axing, a demonstration was took place outside RTM's headquarters, Angkasapuri in Kuala Lumpur on 19 May, calling for media freedom and to protest Chou's termination. At least 80 protesters, mostly from Rawang demanded RTM to airs 8 remaining episodes of Bakun Dam documentary and also demamded the Parliament to reform RTM to ensure "its impartiality as a public service broadcaster". They also protested the axing of another Chou's documentaries on the building of high tension cables near villages in their residence. The Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ) have demanded RTM and the Broadcasting DG to clarify the alleged censorship of the Bakun Dam documentary.

### 2011: Depiction of Noah's Ark in Disney cartoon

An episode of the Disney cartoon, Mickey Mouse and Friends depicting Prophet Noah as a "big-sized man with long bearded and bald", together with his family and a group of animals, including elephants, to build his ark to face the big flood, was inadvertently broadcast on 24 October 2011 on TV2 and sparked outrage among viewers. RTM through its official statements, have apologized over the matter and said that it "would be careful in the future" while also stated that it also "hopes that viewers will continue to provide feedback to improve TV2's broadcast content".

### 2013: Tampering of Royal Malaysia Police insignia

On 10 September 2013, RTM TV1's Berita Nasional had mistakenly displaying the Royal Malaysia Police (RMP) insignia, which saws the police force's name which mistakenly reads "Polis Raja Di Malaysia" instead of "Polis Di Raja Malaysia" during the news broadcast of 'Ops Cantas'. The then-Director-General of Broadcasting, Norhyati Ismail said a police report was made in the wake of the incident. RTM later issued an apology letter through its 12 midnight news and later sent to the RMP and the then-Inspector-General of Police, Khalid Abu Bakar. Both the police force and Khalid accepted the apology. Two days later, on 12 September, an RTM graphic designer, who was responsible for tampering the RMP logo, was sacked. To prevent further mishaps following the incident, RTM through its disciplinary committee held a conference to examine further actions to be taken.

### 2014: 88 Kopitiam sitcom suspension controversy

On 6 February 2014, RTM suspended the broadcast of a Chinese sitcom, 88 Kopitiam for a short period following allegations that one of the series' actors, Lim Jing Miao was involved in Seputeh Member of Parliament (MP), Teresa Kok's 11-minute controversial satirical Chinese New Year video, entitled Onedeful Malaysia CNY 2014. The sitcom, which aired every Monday on TV2, revolves on current issues affecting the Malaysian Chinese community. The video is said to lampoons current affair issues in Malaysia, while Kok plays "the role of a feng shui talk show host interviewing three panellists on their predictions for the lunar new year". The then-DG of Broadcasting, Norhyati Ismail in a statement said that it "will review any programs that links its actors/actresses to activities that tarnish the country's name and image" and "did not hesitate to take any action against any parties who involved in such programs".
Two days later, Jing Miao was among the three actors who appeared in the video, was called up by the police for interrogation. Following the series' suspension, Gerakan Media Marah (Angry Media Movement; GERAMM) has slammed RTM for suspending 88 Kopitiam while citing that "the reason for the suspension to await an investigation involving the actor in the video clip that allegedly defames the country was made recklessly and hastily". The Federation of Screen Guilds of Malaysia (GAFIM) president, Jurey Latiff Rosli have urged the broadcaster to reassess the series' suspension while also stated that "it is unfair for the programme to be suspended just because one of its cast involved in the video". Kok later urged RTM to retract the 88 Kopitiam's suspension, denied that no actors from the series involved in her parody video while called it as a "desperate witch hunt" and "berated the authorities for taking recrimination measures against the artists in RTM or in the entertainment industry".

### 2016: Abu Sayyaf as a Roman Catholic devotees

On 14 June 2016, an RTM news presenter has mistakenly reads the Filipino Islamist group, Abu Sayyaf as a Roman Catholic devotees in its BES Dunia news coverage due to error in the text preparation, which reads: "Abu Sayyaf, based in the southern island of the Philippines, which is Roman Catholic, is known for kidnapping, killing...". A day later, RTM issued an apology regarding the matter through a video posted in its Facebook status and submitted an original text that should read by the presenter to refer the Philippines which majority of its citizen were the Roman Catholic devotees.

### 2017: 2017 SEA Games scattered flag controversy

During the 2017 SEA Games, the flags of participating countries of the Games scattered each other in a medal collection display as seen on TV2 went viral on social media. Eight of out of the 11 flags that changed involving Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Cambodia and Laos. Some netizens are questioned either the mistake was "unintentionally" while considered has "put the nation to shame". The then-DG of Broadcasting, Abu Bakar Ab Rahim later admitted that the error which comes from the production stage and occurs during the live broadcast of TV2's Tamil news on Thursday and issued an apology in a segment of Tamil news a day later. Following the controversy, an officials from RTM news division has suspended for two weeks in September 2017.

### 2019: Allegation on sabotaging the Government

RTM, in February 2019, was accussed for allegedly sabotaging the Federal Government openly in an event held in Seremban, Negeri Sembilan. This comes after the aide to the Transport Minister, Lim Swee Kuan questioned the possibility of RTM sabotaging the government by refused to broadcast a report on its Minister, Anthony Loke apart of not reporting any news on the Menteri Besar of Negeri Sembilan, Aminuddin Harun in conjunction with the national Chinese New Year Open House celebration. Following the allegation, the Ministry of Communications and Multimedia through its Minister, Gobind Singh Deo ordered the broadcaster to provide a report pertained to the allegation.

### 2019: Sarawak flag blunder

In April 2019, RTM accused for blundering the Sarawak flag during the 2019 Sandakan by-election by placing the state's flag instead of the Sabah flag as part of its graphic on the election.

### 2019: Airing of Demi Tuhan Aku Bersaksi

A teaser ad for Malay telemovie, Demi Tuhan Aku Bersaksi received criticism from the public upon it release on July 2019 and accused for "intentionally wanted to badmouthing the tahfiz school" and "elevates a perverse culture through a transgender's life". The telemovie was directed by Eyra Rahman and produced by Fadzil Zahari, a younger brother of actor and director Farid Kamil through his company, Prokuya Studios. Fadzil, the telemovie's producer denied any accusations over it, claiming that it "is not promoting LGBT", but it "is about a transwoman who find "repentance" in a tahfiz school". RTM said that it had defended the telemovie over the issue and assesed that "it is laden with positive message and reflects the reality faced in Malaysian society", while it reveals that the telemovie is "under review". As a result, RTM decided to suspend the telemovie from airing for a year despite received screening approval. Originally schedulled for 2019 airing, with release date yet to be announced, Demi Tuhan Aku Bersaksi aired on TV1 on 31 October 2020.

## 2020s
### 2021: Hamas as 'militant' in Mandarin news

On 11 May 2021, the Mandarin news segment shown on Berita RTM broadcast a report of Israel's airstrike against Palestine, which the news presenter mistakenly labelling Hamas as a 'militants'. Following the incident, two RTM Mandarin news editors have been called to give an explanation and have been issued a show-cause letters. RTM later issued an apology in its Twitter account over the incident.

### 2022: Early broadcast of Maghrib prayers' call in Tawau FM

In April 2022, Tawau FM, one of RTM's regional radio stations, was criticised for airing the Maghrib call to prayer earlier than the scheduled time during the first day of the Ramadhan fasting month. RTM's Sabah branch later apologized over the issue.

### 2022: Dismissal of Ridhuan Tee from Forum Perdana Ehwal Islam

In December 2022, preacher Ridhuan Tee was dismissed from become one of the panelists of RTM's Islamic talk show program, Forum Perdana Ehwal Islam. Ridhuan claimed that the reason for his dismissal from the show was "due to his appearances", while also stated that he was informed by the broadcaster regarding his dismissal just two days before the show's live telecast without stated the reason why RTM had to doing so.

### 2024: Ustaz Don controversy

In June 2024, celebrity preacher, Don Daniyal Don Biyajid or Ustaz Don as he professionally known, was temporarily axed as a host of Salam Baitullah following the dispute in social media related to his controversial views of Prophet Muhammad. He allegedly claimed that the Prophet proposing a woman named Ummu Hani thrice and also claimed that she was his first love. Director-General of Broadcasting, Suhaimi Sulaiman in his statement released on X said that he have asked the series' production team "to take him off the programme", while tweeting: "Don't ask me about what I think or feel. Numbed". Few days later, Ustaz Don resume his duty as the Salam Baitullah host. However, the preacher axed indefinitely from the show after he stirred another controversy where he shared a hadith in which he said "looking at the teacher's face, is better than giving charity to 1,000 horses in the path of Allah".

### 2024: Facebook translation error on Agong's installation

RTM was accused by the public for 'expressing condolences' to 17th and current Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Sultan Ibrahim in its Facebook page upon his installation on 20 July 2024. Following the controversy, the broadcaster said in its statement that it never uploaded any English content in its Facebook page, while clarified that it was an error caused by Facebook's auto-translation from its original Malay text in which the word 'junjung kasih' was translated as 'condolences' instead of 'congratulation' in the text. RTM also have made a police report over the matter and contacted Facebook's parent company, Meta Platforms to rectified the issue. Communications Minister, Fahmi Fadzil expressed his regret over some parties that criticizing RTM of making inappropriate posts in English and urged them to stop sharing the post over the translation mistake.

### 2024: Israel vs Nepal badminton match

On 31 July 2024, RTM's video on demand service, RTM Klik unintentionally broadcast a men's singles badminton match involving Israel and Nepal for less than 5 minutes on the Olympic Channel 4. This came after a Facebook user complained that the broadcaster did not aired Lee Zii Jia's match against the Spanish badminton player, Pablo Abian, but had instead aired the match between Israel's Misha Zilberman and Prince Dahal from Nepal. DG of Broadcasting, Suhaimi Sulaiman in his statement said that RTM had realised its mistake and promptly switched the live coverage to a handball event while said that the Israel vs Nepal match wasn't available in its playlists. Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil later demanded RTM to provide an explanation regarding the absent of live coverage of the Zii Jia's final match at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

## Corruption scandals

In 2019, three including two RTM senior officials were arrested by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission due to misappropriation of money belongs to a zakat institution for the broadcaster's paid programs. They remanded for four days, but the remand custody period for two RTM senior officials were extended to five days.
On 14 November 2023, Suhaila Md Zaini, a producer of RTM's Radio News Section of the News and Current Affairs Division was charged at the Shah Alam Sessions Court for receiving RM10,000 from a company owner in 2018. Six days later, on 20 November, she was charged again for receiving RM18,000 from a 41-year-old women between 17 April and 5 June 2019. She, however, pleaded not guilty on these charges.