Media Council, yet again!

Looks like the Media Council is again the issue of the day, with Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar saying on Monday that the government is still considering a National Media Council and national media policy. Syed Hamid was reported to have said:

The government is toying with the idea and looking at all questions pertaining to media ethics, professionalism and all that… We have started to draft the policy and (establish the foundations) of the National Media Council. Don’t ask me when (it will be implemented). There are a lot of considerations, so we have to look at various aspects.

Maybe the National Media Policy might help with the interesting *cough* journalism it has been putting out of late.

Unfortunately, the Home Minister did not say that the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984 (PPPA) will be repealed. In fact, he was reported to have said, “… I would not go as far as repealing the PPPA. We’ll see what can be done,”

Syed Hamid, when delivering a keynote speech at a colloquium on media policy, organised by the Asian Institute for Developing Communication (Aidcom). During his speech, Hamid was quoted as saying:

The problem arises when the media, in its quest to utilise its freedom as an unbiased channel of information, sensationalises reports with little or no nation-building value, which adversely affects peace and harmony of the nation.

Sounds right about on point about a certain fictionalised YP Josephine, doesn’t it?

Syed Hamid was reported to have also said:

Newspaper readership is on the decline if you compare it with online news… How do you consider it to be alternative when it is become more popular and more and more people are going into it. They (Internet news) have actually become mainstream.

He also noted that newspapers too were trying to emulate Internet media and trying to be as critical as it can because this makes it popular and sells papers.

Personally, I’d be happy for the establishment of a media council, provided that the PPA, Sedition Act, ISA, OSA and certain provisions of the Penal Code and Defamation Act are done away with, and a Freedom of Information Act is established and enforced. Fair trade, I think.

What do you think?

Read Index on Censorship on Malaysia’s quest for a media council here.