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Akhbar Utusan Malaysia

Utusan Malaysia is a popular newspaper in its native country of Malaysia. It has become quite a controversial newspaper as well and its history is just as colorful. It caters to topics as sensitive as political issues and as light and fun as sports, entertainment and various other features. It used to have very little news about other parts of the world aside from Malaysia, but with the advent of its online newspaper, it has widened its reach as well as its scope on other countries around the world.

Utusan Malaysia actually started out in Singapore on the 29th of May in 1939 and was then known as Utusan Melayu. It was originally printed in Jawi, a type of Arabic alphabet native to the Malay language. In line with its goal of reaching out to a more diversified group of readers both within the country and abroad, utusan malaysia has adapted the Romanized letters for printing their articles in the Bahasa Melayu language. It is still, however, still printing out a weekly supplement that is called by its original name, Utusan Melayu, and is printed entirely in Jawi.

During those times, Malaysia was still one of the British colonies and Asia and utusan melayu gave its people an avenue through which they can express their opinions of and aversions to the British colonial government. They eventually gained their independence in 1958. This is also the time that the people behind utusan melayu decided to move their headquarters closer to home—in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur. The publication of the newspaper was consequently taken over by the largest political party in Malaysia—the United Malay National Organization or UMNO—in 1961.

In 1997, Utusan Melayu came up with an online newspaper which was considered a first in Malaysia. It offered the articles printed in the newspaper in full text and visuals over the internet in collaboration with Telekom Malaysia. But in 2003, due to a significant loss in sales, the newspaper turned from being a daily publication to a weekly one. It later changed its name to Utusan Melayu Mingguan, and later to Utusan Malaysia or Malaysian Courier, which has once again become a daily publication with a weekly supplement retaining its original name and Jawi print.

From 2005, Utusan Malaysia has gradually gained an impressive readership of almost 1.5 million people, making it a major daily newspaper in the Bahasa Melayu language.

utusanmalaysia.org