This paper addresses the subject of media control in Malaysia under the Barisan Nasional (BN--National Front) regime, the coalition of ethnically-based political parties that has ruled the country since independence. As Hughes notes in her introduction to this issue, the dominant liberal discourse on democratization often views the mass media in fairly functionalist terms as an agent of democratization, particularly at times of regime transition or crisis. Existing studies of the media industry in Malaysia, however, have long since concluded that any incipient democratizing tendency within the media has long since been subverted by extensive formal and informal control, thus contributing to the entrenchment of the regime.  Author: Brown, Graham.  Publication: Pacific Affairs, Mar 22, 2005.  [Download]