United States President Donald Trump's relentless media bashing has made the work of the media more "challenging", says New York-based Bernama correspondent Manik Mehta.
"It's exciting than before because you are trying to break a sudden abstract wall between you (the media) and the powers that be," he said.
"People will keep reporting....it's wrong to keep away journalists as what he is doing because it is against the American spirit and constitution.
"The spirit of freedom of speech is enshrined in the (American) constitution," said Mehta who is in Kuala Lumpur to hold interviews with several prominent figures.
Trump and his administration have called the press an “enemy of the people,” slammed leading media outlets as purveyors of “fake news,” and banned some major media organisations from White House press briefings.
"He claimed the media have been giving him negative and unfavourable coverage...
But I think the show will go on," said Mehta.
"What he could do is be a little reserve in his comments that would help him in the long run.
"Some former presidents are known to be stoic and let the media do their work although what it did may not be to his liking," he said.
But he said in all fairness to Trump, the man has a fighting spirit when he was down.
"Nobody believe he could beat Hilary Clinton but he went on and rose to become the President.
"I think he will cool down as time goes by...he's not a politician but a businessman," said the India-born Mehta.
He has been living for 25 years in the United States which he considers his country now.
His only child, a 27-year daughter, was born in Germany where he started to write for Bernama.
"I forgot the name of the man from Bernama who spotted me when I spoke at a forum in Bonn.
"He was sitting in the forum...the German government had chosen me to speak about the experience of a foreign journalist living in the country.
"This guy from Bernama came over to me and asked if I could provide some copies of my stories.
"He was being trained at the DPA's office," he said. DPA is the acronym for the German news agency -- Deutsche Presse-Agentur.
"One thing led to another and I eventually started writing for Bernama," said the 67 year-old newsman.
"I used to send stories by telex...Bernama provided me with a telex card and all I had to do was go to the telex office where they would type my stories to be sent to Kuala Lumpur.
Then came the fax machine and much later the electronic mail (email) "in the early part of the century".
He continued to write for Bernama even after moving with his family to the United States to join his parents who were already living there some 25 years ago.
"They are nice people (in Bernama) and it's a good thing to keep in touch.
"You don't break relations...relations are important and that contributes to the success of both sides," he said.
Mehta said he will continue working for Bernama for as long as he could.
"In America, you don't retire...I know of this editor who is 85 and he calls me 'my son'," he quipped.
He speaks English, German and a little French, graduating in German and English Literature from a university in Bombay (now Mumbai).
He was selected to pursue advanced studies in Germany in mid-70s before his wife from India joined him a few years later to live in the country.
"I was in Berlin when the wall was about to come down...that was a memorable event, it was historical," he said.
The fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989 not only reunited Germany and foretold the coming collapse of the Soviet Union, it signaled a profound change in global affairs.
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