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Raja Petra Kamaruddin on Sedition Trial

Malaysian blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin's sedition trial is postponed to November 10-12. 10 to 13 witnesses will testify when the trial resume in November. Raja Petra tells reporters that he now received better meal treatment and is due for a medical check up for his spinal condition.

Raja Petra was charged with sedition on 6 May 2008 after a investigative officer,Gan Tack Guan filed a police report against Raja Petra for posting an article that suggested the Prime Minister Najib Razak, and his wife, Rosmah Mansor, were responsible for the murder of a young Mongolian woman, Altantuya Shaariibuu. Gan called part of the posting "untrue and made up" Both the Prime Minister and his wife denied the allegations. According to Associate Press, two policeman are accused of killing the woman and destroying the body with explosives. The prosecution contends that Abdul Razak Baginda, a close associate of Najib, ordered the killing of Shaariibuu because she pestered him for money after he ended an affair.

He was charged under the 1948 Sedition Act which punishes “incitement to hatred, suspicion or contempt for any leader or government member.” If convicted, RPK could face up to three year of prison.

Raja Petra refused to post bail and was taken to prison in Sungai Buloh the next day. Shortly after, he was released on bail because he reported being threatened by two policemen involved in the Alantuya case. He told RSF that police released him because they could not guarantee his safety in the facility.

On September 12 this year, he was arrested under section 73 (1) of the Internal Security Act (ISA)for acting as "a threat to 'security, peace and public order.'" Raja Petra is ordered to serve two years detention at Kamunting under the ISA, a draconian law that warrant detention without trial. Raja Petra has been in prison since than.

Widely popular in Malaysia, RPK is known and loved by many of his supporters for his continuous effort to expose corruptions and government scandals. Throughout the hearing, Raja Petra's friends, family and supporters were present and showed support by wearing t-shirt that bear slogans such as "free RPK" and "No to ISA"

A candle light vigil was held on October 12 to show support for RPK and other detainee under ISA. A petition urging the Malaysian government to free ISA detainee has also been circulating online and gathering signature from supporters.

His struggle with the Malaysia government go all the way back. I have done a feature on him back in 2007 when he was detained and question for comments on his blog , MalaysiaToday, that are allegedly insulting to the King and Islam. Saying that he had no control to those comments, the police pressed on for the identity of his readers. Though eventually released, he told me that the government want to silence him using the ISA.

Time Line:

April 25: Posted article "Let's send the Altantuya murderers to hell."

April 30: Gan filed police report against Raja Petra

May 2 Investigated for Sedition Act over "Let's send the Altantuya murderers to hell."

May 6 Raja Petra charged with Sedition

May 7 Raja Petra taken to prison for Sedition

May 10 Raja Petra said he was threatened in prison

July 17 raja Petra charged with three counts of criminal defamation

August 16 Raja Petra refuses to enter plea

August 22 Police raided Raja Petra's home

August 28 ISP ordered to cut access to Malaysia Today

September 12 Raja Petra arrested under ISA

September 23 Raja Petra Kamarudin begins two-year detention under ISA at Kamunting

October 3 Raja Petra Cant stomach smelly Kamunting food

October 6 Raja petra's sedition trial started

October 13 Raja Petra receieve better food and trial postponed

November 10 Sedition trial continues

Final words and random wisdom from the CCNMA job fair

• Always believe that you have an advantage when you seems to have one.
• Dont follow the path, go around and get to the guy who will hire you. Especially if you are not confident about some big time companies, you have nothing to lose, your resume will feel better if it were to be tossed away by the bureau chief instead of the HR staff.
  
• Dont linkedin people, coz ppl delete emails when they see invitations, always email

From everyone: YOU MUST HAVE A BLOG OR WEBSITE. LEARN HOW TO EDIT VIDEOS. LEARN AS MANY SOFTWARES AS YOU CAN.

MYTHBUSTERS:

Do employer look at your drunk pictures on facebook?

For online media, maybe, if they are bored and creepy. For most normal people, employer will only check your facebook to verify facts, such as, if your name is Jackie Chan, or Winghei Kwok,
they might look at your facebook to see if you are a guy or a girl. They might verify your school info on facebook. They might refresh their memory of you by finding out how you look like on your profile pics. But anyway, privacy set everything on facebook. Let only your friend see your pictures or notes. Facebook has a block function and you can block people one by one using the privacy setting. If they are persistant enough to work thru that, then they could be some creepy people.

USEFUL SITES:

JournalismNext: job banks for journalist of colors

Knight Digital Media Center: USC media center, contain job
opportunities and fellowship info, online tutorial for online
journalism and other cool stuff.

Interview tips for journalists

INTERVIEW:
1. Preparation: research on the following:

• Latest stories
• business situation
• who are the big talents in the company
• what news things happened in the company recently
• information about the interviewer
  

2. 1st impression:

• punctual
• professional
• confident
• sit up
• be slightly nervous but not disfunctional ( to show that you care enough to be nervous but good enough to hold it
• make GOOD handshakes and eye contact. show that you are secure
  

3. actual interview:

• prepare your answers for questions like :

1. what are your strengths and weakness?
2. If you can change something in this department what would you change?
3. Where do you see yourself in five years time?
4. What is it about this company that you like or dont like?
5. Questions about current news topics.
   

• When you have to take notes during the interview, ask for permission.
  

4. Closing

• When asked "do you have any questions?" ALWAYS ASK SOMETHING, such as
  

1. Tell me something I should know about you
2. How did you get started?
3. What advice would you have for me
4. What is the next step or how long would the review process be?
   

5. Follow up

• Thank you letter ( prefer letter than note cards)
• ollow up if they dont give you any reply within a couple weeks
  

Bonus:
When you sent in your packages, CALL to make sure that they get the package. Then if possible start a conversation on the phone to reinforce your presence. If it goes to voicemail, leave a voicemail. ( these three panelists say they return calls, not sure about others)

Resume tips for journalists

RESUME

• must be 1 page
• preferably 12 point font
• must be clean and dont use crazy font or color paper.
• list job experience in reverse chronological order, last job first
• list references if you have space

Do you include an objective?
Hagihara: Dont, becoz it is often too generic or too specific
Medina: Do, so that she will know what position you are looking for efficiently
Stuart: Do

What about Hobbies?
Hagihara: Do, only if it helps your position, let say if you hold any leadership position in some hobby groups
Stuart: Do, things that reflect your work ethic, organized activity, travel experience and language backgrounds
Diane: Dont care.

The Order of Things:

• Start with Work Experience. *If you dont have much experience, list Skills ( like softwares) even before Work Experience
  
• List Education
• Then list honor or award at the bottom ( some argue that they are not quite neccessary if they are not that big time, but some say that they could be some conversation starters)
  
• At last list References

Cover Letter tips for journalists

I joined a panel workshop with LA Times' Randy , VP of ABC7 Diane Medina and McClatchy Newspaper's corporate recruiter Reginald Stuart.

I am willing to post up the actual handout somewhere, either hardcopy at the office or PDFs, i guess PDF is better.

COVER LETTER

• it is your first impression

• you need to show that you can tell a story.

• you must able to string sentences and concept together coherently

• use active voice, use strong muscular verb and HAVE A VOICE

• tell them your career goal and why are you interested

• be specific, dont say that you want the job coz you love to write

• tell them what is unique about you that you can put on the table and how you and the company can compliment each other.
  

• have your personal info listed on it, name email address and phone etc.
  

• For traditional media only: follow up with a hard copy package of resume cover letter and work sample. You might end up being the only thing they hold in their hand after your email being forgotten in the pile.
  

* all three of them like hard copies*

Experimental cover letter is good only when the editor like it, so it is a risk. But if you are thinking of applying something that you probably wont get anyway, do that. When you are doing experimental, stay away from cliche, fluffy languages and dont OD on adjective and
adverb.

But Conventional business format cover letter is perfectly fine. However, would recommend dont go online and look at sample cover letter, those are for accounting jobs. Write an interesting story on your cover letter, get attention.

***MOST IMPORTANT THING ABOUT COVER LETTER:***
When you are applying for journalism jobs, NEVER EVER address the letter to the hiring manager or to whom it may concern. YOU MUST TRACK DOWN THE PERSON WHO IS HIRING YOU. Reason being that you are a journalist, if you cant even track down your recruiter, you cant track down your sources. So stalk people, or even call the bureau to check,
check with your connection or anything, make sure you send the package to a SPECIFIC PERSON.

Surviving CCNMA job fair

After two days at the CCNMA job fair, here is what I have learnt and I would like to share with you guys.

1. USC has an amazing journalism program and their internships, networking opportunities are top notch. Instead of going to Akerman Union and getting name cards from HR, their job fair features director level recruiters, such as . My advice is, if you are not from USC, join some organization that give you access to job fair to connection like that, or have some USC friends and make them update you with what's going on in their program.

2. Arrive early. why? a. get your money worth. b. eat their complimentary breakfast, ( again you only get that from USC) c. when it is quieter, recruiter or volunteers has more patience becoz there is no line.

3. Network like you are speed dating. Job fair is always disheartening because you feel that they only have that much time for you. If you are ever shy or not used to promoting yourself, start off with journalism organizations. They are the more friendly, approachable people that you can start with. Practice with them and when you get into a nice conversation and start asking about each other's backgrounds, making jokes and getting more comfortable, you ask them for advices, how to approach those people in the next booth. They will usually tell you. I have two guys looking at my resume and telling me what changes I should made and what strength I have. ( will get into the resume critique later ) You do not get that from UCLA career
center. they dont know journalism.

4. Then you move on to the big time recruiters. Look for the recruiters that are hiring for a lot of publications. Some of the recruiters are corporate recruiters and they hire for a lot of newspaper. They talk to you and they access your strength and then they will decide where to forward you too. These are the people that you can be slightly honest with because they are not your future boss, they just hire and they need to see the real strengths. Tell them your goal and SELL your strength. If you wrote a big story for APA/AM tell them about those story and spend the bulk of your conversation on those experience. i realise that is the time when they really get engaged and take notes about you.

5. By now you should be pretty comfortable talking about yourself. Now you move on to the director level recruiters, the person who is the big boss who actually took the time to come to the job fair becoz of USC! Now that you are not shy anymore. you must ask questions. New York Times editor and recruiter Randy Hagihara said that the most disappointing thing is to see a reporter say that he/she has no more questions. Pretend you are doing a story on the recruiter.

Here are some of the questions you can ask: ( according to Hagihara)

• what are they looking for in a potential candidate

• How did they started in the industry ( great icebreaker becoz everyone wanna talk about themselves and again, it is better to ask them in the morning becoz by 4 pm they would have told their life stories 50 times.)
  

• What a some advice they would like to give to young journalists like you
  

6. Here you go, you are pretty exhausted by now. They say that you should network with other students in the job fair, but i don really see that is useful because it is a hyper selfish atmosphere and everyone care a lot about themselves. you make sure that you collect your goodies and souvenir and take a banana home for snack

7. Not over yet. You follow up with all the people you have talked to. Email them a thank you note, restate your interest and include a soft copy of your resume even though you've already gave them one at the job fair.

Sorry I miss out one important point:

things to bring

• A lot of resume

• name card if you have one

• work samples

• notepad or paper, you will need them

• big bag

• girls: suit jacker or sweater ( i was frozen the whole time)

• girls: bandaid for your high heels, you dont wanna be limping becoz you have a blister
  

( i gotta go sleep now) Stay tune for Resume/Cover letter and
interview advices from a panel workshop with McCatchy Newspaper's
Reginald Stuart ( he almost made me cry becoz he is so sweet), LA
Times' Randy Hagihara and ABC News Diversity director Diane Medina.

A review: my blueberry night

You know that feeling when you were at a party and you are desperately wanting to get drunk. But you didn't so you just keep drinking. Finally you give up, you go home, the alcohol kicks in and you are left hanging, longing for the embrace of a three minute friend, the kiss of a stranger.

You might just really want to write a letter to an old lover.
You might just want to stare at the ceiling listening to jazz.
You look around, and everything is illuminated.
street lamps, light diffuses on cement pavement, her patent leather shoes.
Norah Jones crooning, " it is a story that's been told before...."
We had lived for so long, so long that we forget that we are alive. That we forgot some people who walked out and some people , who we had waited and kept their keys.
We forget our waiting to survive the partings.
Should I not made that journey, to come back and kiss you once more?
should I not linger, and drink myself to pieces, so that you, maybe you will come back and sit with me. Like friends, we will have a whiskey, like strangers, and we will leave each other again.
Had I not broken your hearts, I would not be in pain all this years.
My penance, in the form of addiction.
I promise, honey, this is the last time I drink, and I will let you go tomorrow morning.
Meanwhile, I am intoxicated by the colors of the night
The night air smells like rivers, slow streams of dark water silently running across time.

Memory, the aftertaste of your breathe.

you know this country is so much like home.

Does it matters where we are when we look at the same unforgiving landscape through a glass door that never close, yet was never opened?

Does it matter if we deliver our badly scripted lines in Chinese or in English?

Does it matter if I have a different name, live in a different city and speaks a different language?

Footsteps,

the sound of a train thundering pass.

Harmony Gold Screening:I saw Stephen Chow today!!!!

I made it to a CJ7 screening at Harmony Gold at Hollywood. CJ7 wasn't as good as I expected. Maybe i just expected too much. And some humor just didn't translate when you watch it in an American context and as a long time fan, I am convinced that the Stephen Chow that I grew up with is gone forever. The movie wasn't funny. I guess I only laughed once or twice and there wasn't even memorable moment like the Karaoke scene from Shaolin Soccer or the Roadrunner scene from Kung Fu Hassle. Maybe I was just confused. The crowd were the foreign movie fans/ film students crowd, so they weren't feeling Chow's divine presence. I wish I were at the UCLA screening, but then again, I am glad that I was not.

Stephen Chow actually had a screening at UCLA yesterday. I was being extremely nice and I told the Hong Kong Student Society about it so they could better arrange the situation and avoid some crazed fans being arrested by campus police. The last thing I wanna see on campus is crazy Chinese students stepping on each other and making Daily Bruin headlines. So y being concerned, I basically blew my chance of getting in, (hence, i end up at the Harmony Gold, lucky me.) If Leon Lai was moped at Melnitz couple years ago, Stephen Chow would never make his way to the parking lot. Like me, those kids in HKSS are all gonna have a life changing experience by breathing the same air with the King of Comedy in the same space.

The perks of being in Hollywood is that big star like Stephen comes to America as a nobody, so they become accessible like any up and coming names. In Hong Kong, no kids will ever ever dream of seeing Stephen Chow face to face, let alone a Q&A session. Finally, our international student fees pay off.


their Q&A are pretty similar than the one I've been to. Except the audience at UCLA are probably 99% Chinese student. How FOBulous!