The DAP condemns all the high-handed and arbitrary arrests commanded by the Inspector-General of Police, especially the arrests of four The Malaysian Insider (TMI) senior editors and The Edge publisher, and calls for a self-regulatory media council to be set up immediately, as to handle all the public complaints on the media reporting as well as the conduct and discipline of journalists in Malaysia.
In fact, the idea of setting up a media council was mooted in 1973 during the time of Tun Abdul Razak, the then Prime Minister of Malaysia but it failed to take off. Malaysia is only one of the few countries without a media council. Instead of resorting to high-handed approaches in getting a mistake in news reporting verified, Najib Tun Razak must help in his father in accomplishing such mission without further deteriorating the press freedom in our country.
There are several types of media councils. In some countries they are called press council and in others they are called media council. While in other countries may have the press ombudsman, or press complaints commission. These bodies are either formed as an association or with involvement of the state, such as through the Parliament.
Whether it is formed as a voluntary body or otherwise, the main function of these bodies is to oversee or to regulate the press or media in certain respects, especially in the practice of journalism, print or electronic. The electronic media should be put under the same jurisdiction of the media council, even though some of the electronic media are not licensed by the Federal Government, either through the Home Ministry or the Ministry of Communication and Multimedia.
In 1999, the Home Ministry commissioned the Malaysian Press Institute (MPI) to look into the feasibility of establishing a self-regulating media council following a memorandum from 1,000 journalists in 1999 and 2000 calling for the repeal of the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984 (PPPA). They have also requested that a media council be set up.
The MPI formed a committee to study the proposal which recommended that a media council be set up. A report has been submitted to the government. An overwhelming 93.3% of the respondents indicated that a media council should be formed. That was a strong enough indication to set up a media council.
What should be the status of the media council? Majority of respondents (56.7%) said it should be a statutory body formed by an Act of Parliament, while 36.7% said it should be voluntary.
Who should head the media council? Majority of respondents (60%) said a media person should head the body, but after due deliberation and after considering the practice in other countries, the committee decided to opt for the judge as it felt a person with legal background should head the body.
On the composition of the media council, the committee also decided to give more representation to the media, 2/3 media and 1/3 non-media. The membership will comprise the media, professionals, NGOs, academicians and journalist association/unions/ There will be no politicians and no government representatives (except if they represent government media entity).
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.
The proposed media council must be an independent, self-funding and self-regulated body that has the confidence of both the profession and the public. The proposed Council must add to the primary function of promoting credibility of the media through accountability. A parallel function must be able to establish, protect and sustain media freedom.
Only by setting up a self-regulatory media council through the Parliamentary legislation, we are able to restrain the politicians from intervening the media reporting as when they like. As rightly pointed out by UMNO MP for Pulai, Nur Jazlan Mohamed who is also the Chairman of Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in the case of latest crackdown on TMI, there was a difference between writing with the intention to incite others to do wrongful acts and making mistakes in news reports.
There are other avenues for us to deal with the mistake in the news reporting, and the setting up of a self-regulatory media council shall be considered as one immediate way out, either for the politicians who are aggrieved by the bad reporting or the journalists who are strived hard for the press freedom and consolidating its role of “fourth estate” which meant a free and independent media that exposes corruption and keeps democratic checks and balances strong.