Council must ensure true press freedom

ON Wednesday, the Cabinet approved the Malaysian Media Council Bill. The plan is to table it in Parliament in June.

Once the Bill is passed – hopefully quickly – the Malaysian Media Council (MMC) will be set up. Finally.

It’s been a long wait.

The idea was mooted four decades ago but not with any sense of urgency. For a while, it was a case of one step forward, two steps back as governments of the day and even those in the media industry itself raised questions and objections that saw the proposal mothballed time and again.

Sincere government buy-in seemed to come when a protem committee was formed in January 2020 with the appointment of 17 representatives from the print, electronic and online media, local and foreign media, journalist associations, and non-governmental organisations. They were tasked with proposing a model for a media council, in line with the policy direction of the government then.

Through several initiatives, including discussions among publishers and national consultations, various drafts of the proposed MMC Bill were made.

But then, of course, Malaysia entered its revolving-door-at-Putrajaya phase and, once again, the media council was left by the wayside, along with many other important legislative reforms.

Wednesday’s Cabinet approval is the closest we have come to seeing the council made real.

But what exactly will materialise?

The Bill reportedly aims to outline a code of conduct, set up a dispute resolution procedure for public complaints against the media, and establish a budget for the council, among others.

In addition to this, media council advocates want the Bill to have a clear mandate for the council and a definition of its role. Will the council hold sway over media affairs in the country, or will it remain heavily under the government’s ambit?

It’s important that it is the industry that sets the standards, as is the practice in most such councils in democracies around the world.

This is crucial in elevating the standards of journalism in the country in serving its role of raising the people’s voice.

But the people are, as expected, sceptical and trust is certainly an issue; for example, there have been allegations of the government attempting to exert draconian control over the media through the reintroduction of an ethical guideline for journalists about a week ago.

This is where an assurance, or better still a guarantee, is sorely needed to make it clear that media freedom will no longer remain mere lip service.

We must ensure that the council is an independent, authoritative and influential entity that includes all stakeholders, such as media owners or publishers, journalists and other media workers, civil society, and academia.

Most importantly, the council cannot be beholden to either the private or public sectors; ie, it cannot be used to protect government or business interests from honest criticism and debate in the public interest.

Crucially, any form the council takes cannot be hampered by the archaic and repressive laws undermining the freedom of the press that Malaysia still has on its books.

It’s accepted that an independent judiciary, civil society with the rule of law, and free speech are pillars of democracy – and the fourth pillar is freedom of the press.

However, laws such as the Printing Presses and Publication Act, the Sedition Act, Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act, Section 203 of the Penal Code, and the Official Secrets Act endanger that freedom and hamper the work of journalists in Malaysia.

Let us also hope that such repressive laws will be amended in parallel with the birth of the Malaysian Media Council.