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Message: <blockquote data-quote="sysh" data-source="post: 2055038" data-attributes="member: 17944">okay.. my apologise for starting this thread again, but i got a PM from the reporter who wrote this article and would like me to post his response on his behalf.. don't shoot the messenger, yah? just dropping a msg off. happy chinese new year peeps! :)My name is Royce Cheah and I'm the reporter that wrote that story that raised a lot of debate on ZTH. There were also some personal attacks at the Star, the people I interviewed and at me in the 155 posts or so (yes I went through them all).I'm not messaging you to start another fiery debate, but I hope you could post this - in the spirit of fairness and without prejudice.To all of you who are concerned with the 'unfairness' of the article, and especially to those who took it out of context early on by highlighting only that particular sentence about low-income earners - I hope you could read this with an open mind and not take my words out of context either.Firstly, you must be wondering why am I even bothering to reply? It is because I believe in dissenting views, and am not a robot or merely a slave of the mass media as maybe some of you view us.The reason why the article was put up as a story idea to develop was simple - there were numerous letters to the editor by various people that were published and the editors felt that it was worth finding out what the big deal was as it appeared to be a public interest issue. Many of the letters complained consistently about the blinking lights (brake, reverse lights) and people putting the tiny blue/red lights on various parts of their bonnets and hoods. Their argument was that the lights were distracting and capable of causing accidents. JPJ themselves say those lights are not standard and car owners should not modify their cars in that manner. Why? Because it IS dangerous.But the merits of this aside, as to how the story unfolded was like this:- I was not given much time to write this story. - From the time I interviewed Aaron and his colleague to the point of writing the main story, and also getting another story on someone who did modifications - plus compiling that huge graphical explanation on what is/isn't allowed - it was a rushTime constraints aside, I was also restricted by network constraints. I had to call many many people who eventually pointed me to Aaron. Unfortunately I did not know ZTH existed at that time or I would have surely gone to you guys first.I am to blame for that oversight.One more thing to note is, I had by no means tried to compartmentalise any particular group or bring bias onto any particular group by what was written.I as a reporter, am reporting what was said. And please do not think that I did not try to verify that particular 'low income group' statement. I probably asked five or six times whether this was really true, and the answer was yes. Following the logic of what was told to me, that to reasonably mod a car can cost upward of RM60k-RM80k, and that those lights would cost a mere fraction, (plus the overriding qualifier that yes there are people out there who want to feel good through the look of their cars), it makes sense.Am I really wrong for writing it in that manner? It can be argued. But please understand that not every opinion can please everyone and it is your right to have an opposing and alternative viewpoint (which I completely respect).I am surprised that since so many people here have responded to what was written that none of it actually translated to a phonecall or an email to the newspaper.I guess what I am trying to say in a nutshell is this (and it was said in one of the posts).Should there be future occasions where I'm asked to once again jump into this topic of car modification - would ZTH members volunteer themselves for comments?And lastly, please do feel free to share your views with us if any articles published about such topics are inaccuate.I can be reached at royce.cheah[at]gmail.com or royce[at]thestar.com.myRegards,Roycep.s. I stumbled across the ZTH posts after doing a search on yahoo for my name. It is one way I keep track of feedback on stories I've done and whether I made mistakes.</blockquote>

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