PETALING JAYA: The Madani government is willing to help any media companies experiencing financial difficulties and laying off media personnel should be a last resort, says Communications Minister Datuk Seri Fahmi Fadzil.
He also said that the government had added another RM30mil to the Media Innovation Fund, which was set up to assist media companies.
Prior to this, Fahmi said another RM30mil was disbursed to 72 Malaysian media companies under the Media Innovation Fund 2.0 to support the digital transformation, modernisation, and sustainability of local media organisations.
The Minister said this at the launch event for the Journalists' Health Screening Program - a joint collaboration between the Malaysian Media Council (MMC) and Cardiac Vascular Sentral Kuala Lumpur (CVSKL) here on Saturday (Oct 31).
"I am working to put things right, restore the media industry and place it on a more sustainable footing, with a brighter future.
"The operations of social media platforms, which have taken advertising expenditure away from traditional media organisations, have created a serious impasse for media organisation leaders.
"Some of these social media platform companies, which are technology giants, are hiding behind the White House to avoid providing the necessary cooperation.
"Yesterday, I announced a further round of the Media Innovation Fund, worth RM30 million. Applications will open tomorrow, 1 Nov, and the closing date is 14 Nov," said Fahmi.
He further said that media companies need to recognise the value of embracing and benefiting from technologies.
"We did not dictate which technologies they should adopt or which vendors they should engage. That decision was entirely up to the individual organisations.
"The last thing I want to see happening under my watch is media companies laying off their employees, shutting down, closing their operations or going bankrupt.
"If any media company is facing difficulties, inform me early so that we can ensure media employees do not find themselves in hardship and distress because they have been laid off.
"If there are disciplinary issues, that is a different matter. But if the problem is financial, please approach me. We will do our very best to provide assistance. Please, please, please refrain from laying off employees indiscriminately," said Fahmi.
Also in attendance at the event was MMC chairman Tan Sri Nallini Pathmanathan, Star Media Group chief content officer Datin Paduka Esther Ng, Media Prima News and Current Affairs deputy group managing editor Datuk Farrah Naz Abd Karim, and Borneo Post and Utusan Borneo general manager Phyllis Wong Yang Yong.
