KUALA LUMPUR – The creation of a media council should also see the removal of draconian laws, PETRA News executive director Datuk Ahirudin Attan said at the National Journalists’ Day (Hawana) 2023 celebration today.
This is part of the idea of a media council, which is to have the press regulate itself, he said at the Hawana Media Forum 2023, titled The Future of Media, held in Ipoh, Perak.
“There are two elements in (a) media council: to encourage the government to (get) rid of draconian laws…that is the real excuse for wanting a media council.
“The second is to regulate ourselves,” said Ahirudin, who is also known as Rocky Bru.
The government is set to table a bill for the Malaysian Media Council’s formation in Parliament by March next year, Communications and Digital Minister Fahmi Fadzil said recently.
Fahmi said the draft bill is currently in the discussion stage among media organisations, related companies and media practitioners’ associations.
The previous Pakatan Harapan government had wanted to establish a media council for the industry to self-regulate, but was unable to proceed with the relevant laws when the Sheraton Move in March 2020 caused its collapse.
Ahirudin, meanwhile, said today that calls for a media council had long been mooted, but acknowledged the difficulty in getting one started.
“(This establishment of a) Malaysian media council…it is 40 years too late, but that is how long we have fought for (it).
“Sometimes we cannot even regulate our newsrooms…we know how difficult it is to regulate the press and media,” added Ahirudin, who moderated the forum’s segment on Survival of Traditional Media In The Digital Age.
Common ground: challenging feat
Agence France-Presse’s (AFP) Alric Manickam, meanwhile, agreed that finding common ground to establish a media council was difficult but necessary.
He shared AFP’s experience of having to abide by the laws of various countries where the international news agency operates, noting that a singular system cannot satisfy all nations.
However, the conversation on forming a media council must begin somewhere, as it would require numerous discussions and could take years, said the AFP country manager for Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei.
Contemporary journalism: it’s personal
The forum today also discussed the need for media and journalism to keep up with current times and changing consumer behaviour in the digital age.
Radio Television Malaysia’s Director-General Suhaimi Sulaiman noted how feedback to news reports these days is immediate and sometimes personal.
“Thirty-two years ago, it was easy to publish a story and not get feedback. Now, they (readers) will hit you on Twitter.
“I wake up to people bashing me…it is the new landscape,” he quipped.
Suhaimi, who was formerly chairman of national news agency Bernama, said readers’ attention spans have also become shorter, leading to news agencies having to summarise the news.
“Consumers’ loneliness is also why people like their news on platforms such as TikTok, where there are chat features that allow viewers to communicate with each other,” Suhaimi added.
Be responsive
Branding expert Andrew Arnold Ambrose said it is more common now for news consumers to question the media and journalists’ work, and to not accept information wholesale.
As such, the Brandzpertz strategist stressed the importance of newsrooms responding to queries and ridding consumers of doubt as part of their media branding.
AFP’s Alric said that journalism, as with other forms of media, will also naturally undergo an evolution process.
This was also AFP’s experience, having branched out from its traditional newswire services to multimedia journalism including photography, videography, and graphic design services, among others.
“Everything is intrinsically linked to the eyeball and what makes sense to it.
“We need to evolve ourselves and see what we can provide (for our) clients and customer base,” Alric said. – The Vibes, May 28, 2023
