5 EX-BERNAMA JOURNALISTS HONOURED
NSTP CEO Jalil and four others recognised for their outstanding achievements
Palanivel, 68, who started out as a senior reporter in Bernama in April 1977, rose to become a minister when he served as MIC president. In Bernama, he was a news editor at the Domestic News Service and Economic News Service between 1984 and 1987 prior to being seconded as the press secretary to the then works minister Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu. He held that post from 1987 to 1990.
Ismail rose up the ranks to become Public Service Department director-general and retired from that second highest position in the civil service in 2010. He had joined Bernama in 1968 as one of its pioneer cadet reporters.
Bernama was then operating out of a rented bungalow in Jalan Pekeliling (now Jalan Tun Razak). He left Bernama in 1972.
Syed Arabi was also a pioneer cadet reporter of Bernama, having joined the news agency in 1968.
The retired rector of the International Islamic University of Malaysia (IIUM) continues to serve in the university’s Department of Communication, Kulliyyah of Islamic Revealed Knowledge and Human Sciences. Syed Arabi was with Bernama for three years as a reporter and two years as the Sabah bureau chief.
Jalil, 57, has more than 30 years of experience in journalism and communications, having started his career in journalism in Bernama in 1982 as a news executive. During his seven years at Bernama, Jalil also served as the Johor bureau chief and acting economic news editor.
He then joined Reuters and was with the international news agency for 18 years, holding positions such as chief political correspondent and deputy head of the Reuters bureau in Malaysia and Brunei from 1998 to 2008, besides serving in the Reuters offices in London, Singapore and Jakarta.
Jalil, who is a permanent member representing the media in the Bernama Board of Governors, was appointed NSTP CEO on March 1, 2017, after having been the group managing editor since Oct 15, 2011.
Nambiar, 69, ventured into the media world when he joined Bernama as a cadet reporter in 1969 and rose to deputy news editor in the Economic News Service of the news agency.
In 1975, Nambiar became the first Bernama journalist to attend a journalism training stint at Agence France Press (AFP) in Paris and also served in the AFP office in London.
He was then sent to Bangkok to be the Bernama correspondent there.
In 1984, Nambiar left Bernama and joined AFP in Kuala Lumpur and was subsequently transferred to Singapore as the AFP bureau chief. Prior to his retirement in December last year, he was the AFP Director of Sales and Marketing for Asia-Pacific, based in Hong Kong.
Bernama also honoured three former senior officers of the news agency with Awards for Specific Contribution, namely former general managers Datuk Hasnul Hassan and Datuk Yong Soo Heong, and executive editor Zainoor Sulaiman.
Hasnul, 55, joined Bernama as the general manager on Jan 2, 2009, and served until Dec 31, 2012. He played a major role in the restructuring of Bernama following approval by the Public Service Department in 2010.
Yong, 62, who started his career as a cadet reporter in 1974, held several positions in the news agency, such as assistant editor, editor and executive editor of the Economic News Service, and moved on to become the editorin-chief and general manager.
He contributed a great deal to promote Bernama as a host news agency for international conferences and played a role in organising a roundtable on the National Budget.
Yong, who is now the chairman of the Malaysia Global Business Forum, was also responsible for establishing the Mandarin News Service in Bernama in 2004.
Zainoor, 70, who was with Bernama for 25 years, including as the news agency’s correspondent in Jakarta and Manila, played a role in setting up the Bernama Audio Visual Service in 1998.
Ten years later, the AV Service was launched as the Bernama TV 24-hour news channel that has been rebranded as Bernama News Channel (BNC).