SMOKING scenes should not be displayed excessively on the television screen, says director and producer Datuk Yusof Haslam.
Such scenes are inappropriate to be shown on either state-owned or privately-owned stations, Utusan Malaysia quoted him as saying.
“It’s as if we’re encouraging young people to smoke. If it’s on government television, it’s not appropriate.
“However, in the case of the TV series Projek: High Council, it should not be a problem because the story needed the actors to portray their characters as rowdy students,” he said.
Still, Yusof believed the production team might have not followed guidelines stipulated by the authorities before the smoking scenes were shown.
“I understand that the creators wanted to show reality, but it shouldn’t be done simply in that way,” he added.
He was responding to a statement by a local public health movement that called out the TV series for showing scenes of underage smoking.
The school drama, which centres on gangsterism and bullying in a boarding school, is said to be based on the activities of a school gang in Ipoh.
It stars Mierul Aiman, Amir Ahnaf and Sazzy Falak.
> A mother in Negri Sembilan wore a costume of anime character Doraemon when she sent her daughter to school on the first day of the school term, Harian Metro reported.
Nurulazma Shafiqah Khairul Azhar, 32, said she believes schoolchildren would appreciate some entertainment on their first day in school yesterday.
“My daughter was excited to walk to school with ‘Doraemon’,” she said.
She added that she also distributed chocolates to the students at SK Serting Hilir in Jempol.
● The above article is compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with this ' >'sign, it denotes a separate news item.
