On the day of the conference opening, a column in one of of the two news media groups involved in organising the Second Commonwealth Editors Forum, the New Straits Times, took a swipe at Western news media.
While Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed was declaring Malaysians would rather be "heretics" than be dominated and "colonised" by greedy currency traders, commentator Hardev Kaur complained bitterly that biased reporting "only confirms Western media's hidden agenda".
The PM was quoted as telling journalists to see Malaysia for themselves. They were told not to blindly "trust CNN or CNBC".
"The Prime Minister said: "I believe the Japanese people believe there is continuous rioting in Malaysia and it is a dangerous place to go.
"'They [CNN and CNBC] have a different agenda and they tell lies to promote their agenda,' he added."
For the South Pacific contingent - and many of the other Commonwealth journalists - coverage of the issue was an eye opener. Fiji Times editor Samisoni Kakaivalu, the Fiji Daily Post's Jale Moala, Samoa Observer's Savea Sano Malifa, Solomon Star's John Lamani and The National's Frank Senge Kolma (PNG) were seeing at first hand the credibility gulf of a development media model that refused to reflect the events in Malaysia.
(Malaysia's media model has been frequently cited by politicians in Fiji and Papua New Guinea as an example to be emulated in both Pacific countries.)
It was a case of blaming the messenger. Condemnation was heaped on foreign media, CNN and the Internet - anything rather than recognise the truth.
In spite of the superb hospitality, excellent organisation and support from the host Universiti Sains Malaysia (on a campus once the training camp of Britain's elite commando forces and now a technical university with Malaysia's first and largest mass communication faculty), sponsorship from Malaysian Airlines, and support from the New Straits Times and Star newspaper groups, the silence over Anwar and the rioting became too much for some editors.
After hearing harrowing stories about repression of the media, killings and jailings of journalists in Pakistan, Bangladesh, South Asia and Africa, several editors decided enough was enough.
Acknowledging that he was torn by the desire not to offend his hosts, editor-in-chief Gilbert Ahnee of Le Mauricien made an impassioned speech saying it was offensive that the crisis in Malaysia was being ignored and delegates were being made to feel the issue was off limits.
Ottawa Citizen's editor Neil Reynolds broke the stunned silence by giving Canadian support to the Mauritius delegate.
But then a series of defensive speakers from Malaysia and Zambia's Daily Post editor Fred M'membe argued against the outburst.
In the next day's papers, no reports described what Ahnee actually said - or, except in one case, even named him. But the papers reported the "rebuttal" as a major story.
"Don't pass judgement in haste, foreign media told," said the Star's headline.
"Donąt lose sight of Malaysia's success," reported the New Straits Times.
Ironically, the Times also reported the country's first email "rumour case" involving messages that Indonesians were upset that Malaysia would not grant renew their work permits after Indonesia's upheaval. The case will be heard on February 5 and the accused faces up to two years in jail if convicted.
The debate brought into stark relief a crucial question. What role is there for journalists? Is it a discipline in decline in the face of dramatic technological changes and rampant "infotainment"?
Or is it still alive and kicking in parts of the Third World?
"Alternatively," asks Prof Berger, "do we embrace the era of the Internet, me-journalism, and the primacy of the Monicagate-style soapies?"
An optimistic alternative is education and the focus on traditional journalism values.
David Robie is journalism coordinator at the University of the South Pacific. He attended the Commonwealth Editors' Forum in Penang.
