Minister of Communications and Digital today expressed hope that journalism ethics will be among the matters given priority by the Malaysian Media Council once it is established.
In fact, he said journalism ethics should be the pillar of independent media, apart from being the fundamentals of news reporting.
“This is because we (the government) don’t want to be misunderstood that (journalists) can arbitrarily write untrue stories, raise unfounded facts, or fake news,” he said briefly at a press conference at the World Press Freedom Day (WPFD) Forum 2023 here today.
During the forum earlier, Fahmi also touched on the issue of economic pressure faced by various media companies in the country and how it became one of the serious issues that need to be resolved before a national media council can be fully established.
“In the last few months, we (the Communication and Digital Ministry) have engaged with editors and senior editors (of various media organisations), the fact is some media organisations have seen their revenues falling off the cliff in the last few years by up to 75 per cent.
“Other than that, we also have to look at how we can make it (media) run sustainably, the media should be self-regulated; the laws are only for when there are breaches of the law.
“It's good to have a media council but it's not complete if we don't address economic concerns faced by media organisations themselves,” he said.
Meanwhile, when asked if the media council will be subject to the Printing Presses and Publications Act (PPPA) 1984, Fahmi said there have yet to be discussions on the matter.
“We have not arrived at that discussion as of right now; a lot of focus (at the present) is on the form and function of the media council and subsequently to bring the media council bill to the Attorney-General, as well as the Parliament,” he added.
Source: BERNAMA News Agency