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| Southeast Asia |
| Editor: Malysian Gov't Needs To Set Up Independent Press Council |
| 2005-07-16 |
| PUTRAJAYA, July 15 (Bernama) -- The government needs to set up an independent press council urgently to ensure the media in the country adopted good and transparent practices. The Editor-in-Chief of Malaysian National News Agency (Bernama) Datuk Azman Ujang said formation of the council would also maintain the media's credibility, the main asset of the media. Azman, however, said some media practitioners disagree to the formation of such a council because they felt it would further control the media in addition to about 40 laws which curtailed press freedom. Touching on press freedom and responsibilities for the nation, he said the local media was facing a dilemma in striking a balance in news reporting. He said "extreme self-censorship" or "leaning towards the government" might jeopardise media credibility to the extent of the readers refusing to buy newspapers... the situation did happen during the 1999 political crisis and many of the mainstream newspapers suffered a drop in sales. At the same time, Azman said the leadership of the local media had succeeded in playing a balanced role and the media still enjoyed the freedom of news reporting. Meanwhile, Commissioner of the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) Prof Datuk Hamdan Adnan said the local media must be fair to all parties and report the news accurately... Hamdan, who supports the formation of the council, said the government needs to review existing laws which stifled press freedom, especially laws considered to be "draconian" and outdated. He said the local media sometimes faced "secret syndrome" as they felt certain issues cannot be published or discussed critically as they are deemed to be a secret. This situation could affect local newspapers' credibility, forcing the public to turn to the Internet for news... |
| Posted by:Pappy |