PETALING JAYA: Communications and digital minister Fahmi Fadzil hopes the proposed Malaysian media council will be able to address and mitigate issues affecting local news reporting.
Fahmi said while the government views press freedom as something that is crucial, there have been public complaints about certain news reports.
“That’s why the deputy minister (Teo Nie Ching) and I believe that perhaps the Malaysian media council would be a very good avenue to mitigate, discuss and resolve some issues,” he told the media after launching the Malaysian Digital Expo 2023 at a hotel here.
“We hope we can bring the Bill to Parliament by next year so that media organisations can solve issues involving journalists themselves.”
He reminded the media of the importance of being factually correct and not just focus on being the first to publish news.
Fahmi cited an instance when a popular news portal published a report stating that a certain opposition politician had been arrested by the police but this turned out to be false.
Previously, Fahmi had said the Malaysian Media Council Bill was expected to be tabled during the October session of the Dewan Rakyat or next March.
The formation of the Malaysian media council was proposed in 2018 to represent the various media organisations in the country in combating fake news and ensuring the well-being of media practitioners.