Positive devt in setting up Malaysia Media Council

KUALA LUMPUR: The Pakatan Harapan (PH) government is pleased to see positive progress in the establishment of the Malaysia Media Council (MMC), said the Prime Minister’s Special Advisor on Media and Communications Datuk A. Kadir Jasin.

The veteran newsman said the MMC might be able to be established by this year.

“I have been talking to several group of people to encourage them to do this (Media Council) as quickly as possible. The new government is coming to one year very soon and there are still many promises yet to be delivered, particularly in the area of reforms, many more laws that we promised we will repeal or amend, are yet to be repealed or amended.

“I have seen at least two pretty good drafts about what MMC should be and those drafts may be discussed here in the next two days. I hope some clearer ideas will come out of this conference so that it can be presented to the government,” he said in his keynote address at the National Consultation for a MMC 2019, he said, here yesterday.

The Deputy Secretary General of Communications and Multimedia Ministry Shakib Ahmad Shakir attended the event to represent Deputy Minister of Communications and Multimedia Eddin Syazlee Shith.

Commenting further, Kadir said the establishment of MMC is imperative, but the government will not be involved in the process.

“It is imperative because the government wants it, but the government is not going to take the first step... that is not the policy of the new government, we do not want to interfere with the media.

“We want the media to be free but we also want the media to be responsible. So, the Media Council is imperative upon journalists and media practitioners, it is important because it is part of the reform process of the new government,” said Kadir.

The two-day conference was jointly organised by the Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ) and the Malaysian Centre for Constitutionalism and Human Rights (MCCHR).

It aims to bring together a wide range of stakeholders to work out a roadmap for self-regulation for the Malaysian media.

Meanwhile, Shakib when reading Eddin’s speech said the Malaysia Media Council could learn from self regulatory bodies from neighbouring countries such as Indonesia and the Philippines.

He said in Indonesia, for example, self-regulation has been very successful in helping the press meet challenges from attempted government interference to issues of extremism and they have set standards of peacekeeping and ethnic conflict.