In view of the recent arrests and detention of journalists for allegedly publishing false content, the DAP has revived the idea of setting up a self-regulating media council.
Tanjong MP Ng Wei Aik in a statement called for a regulatory body which would handle public complaints on media reporting, instead of what he said are “high-handed approaches” to verify news reports under Prime Minister Najib Razak’s leadership.
Ng said that a media council must be independent, self -funding and self-regulating, and should have the confidence of the public and media professionals. Apart from its primary function of promoting credibility of the media through accountability, he said, a parallel function to protect and sustain media freedom should be established.
In the case of the arrests of The Malaysian Insider journalists and the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of The Edge, investigations were carried out under the Sedition Act. Opposition leaders had expressed their concern over the incidents, that such arrests would inculcate fear amongst journalists to report freely as required by their profession.
The portal had published an allegedly false report on the ruler’s council saying that it had rejected proposed amendments to Act 355 by PAS Kelantan, which if successful would enable the enforcement of hudud law in the state.
Quoting unnamed “sources”, The Malaysian Insider reported on March 25 that the Malay rulers decided against it in meeting on March 11, which would mean that the Federal government will no longer move to have the Act amended in Parliament. A day after the report was released, The Keeper of the Rulers’ Seal denied issuing any statement on Kelantan’s hudud plan adding that it would seek police investigations regarding the matter.
“The latest crackdown on the journalists shall be another opportunity for the Federal Government as well as the media to rekindle the public interest in setting up a media council and also to revisit the idea of repealing certain Parliamentary Acts considered restrictive to the press as a pre-requisite for the setting up of the council,” Ng said.
He said that the setting up of the council through Parliamentary legislation would restrain politicians from arbitrarily intervening with media reporting as they choose.
The idea of a media council was mooted back in 1973 by then Prime Minister, Abdul Razak Hussein, Najib’s late father, but it had failed to take off; and recent attempts to set up a media council was rejected by the media community.
In 2011, former Information Minister Rais Yatim suggested the formation of a media consultative council, which was to be chaired by him and then Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein. The suggestion was generally scoffed at by the media fraternity.
Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ), a media watchdog had at the time described the proposal as a “media propaganda council” instead, due to it being government-led.
Media groups had instead called for a truly independent council, without government involvement to maintain the press’s role as the fourth estate. Apart from unbiased representation in the council, media groups had urged for the repealing of repressive Acts such as the Printing Presses and Publications Act (PPPA) – which required print publications to apply for annual permits.
In 2012, the Act was amended, scrapping the said requirement, but retaining the Home Minister’s power to suspend a publication.
– The Rocket
