Media freedom not a priority to become developed nation, minister says

KUALA LUMPUR, June 15 — Malaysia does not need “absolute” media freedom to achieve developed nation status, a minister told Parliament today.

Multimedia and Communications Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Shabery Cheek said the federal government is for curtailing press freedom if absolute press freedom led to religious insults, as has happened in some European countries.

“Some YBs have drawn comparisons to countries high on the press freedom ranking like Sweden, Denmark and France, where they allow cartoons to insult religion,” he said when winding up points directed at his ministry during the 11th Malaysia Plan debate.

“Do you want the freedom to insult religion? Then we will reap the same situation that they faced... if that is the intention, we in the government do not agree,” he added.

Shabery did not point to any specific incident, but it is believed that he was referring to the Charlie Hebdo massacre in France in early January, when 12 staff of the French satirical magazine were gunned down over a series of controversial cartoons depicting Islam’s Prophet Mohammad.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak at that time joined other world leaders in condemning the attack, saying that nothing justifies taking innocent lives and that the world must “fight extremism with moderation”.

Shabery today stressed that there are numerous examples of countries where the level of media freedom did not reflect the state of development.

He argued that Singapore – which he claimed is a favourite example of a developed nation among MPs – sits behind Malaysia on the annual World Press Freedom ranking, while some African countries also trail Malaysia in terms of overall development despite ranking higher on media freedom indices.

“Some say Turkey is a good example (of a developed nation), but their media freedom ranking is worse than ours... we need to see if we need to have media freedom to be a developed nation,” the minister said.

Malaysia ranked 147 out of 180 countries according to the 2015 rankings compiled by Reporters Without Borders (RSF).