KUALA LUMPUR, March 7 — The Information Department (Japen) today clarified that the media card validity period for media practitioners in the country, following concerns that this could be lowered in a move seen as restricting press freedom in the country.
It said the media accreditation for official government media practitioners and local media, including existing online outlets, remained at two years.
However, it also said the validity period will be doubled to two years for Malaysians working as correspondents for foreign news outlets.
“However, for foreign media practitioners who are working with international media or on long-term working trip to Malaysia, are only entitled for one year validity period for the media card,” Japen said in a statement.
For media practitioners employed on contract basis with a media organisation, such as part-time staff or stringers, the validity of their accreditation would be annual.
The department also announced a reduced validity for media cards issued to new online news outlets, which will be just six months from the first application.
It said this is to ensure that the new outlets were genuine, active and did not engage in disseminating disinformation.
“Once they complete the six-month period, the approval period given is the same as the categories above,” said Japen.
Japen also said the latest validity period for media cards will take immediate effect starting from today.
Japen yesterday said that it is in the process of reviewing standard operating procedures (SOP) for issuing media cards, including the period of validity as part of a bid to “streamline” and reform media regulation.
Malaysiakini reported shortly after the announcement that Japen had quietly slashed the validity period of media cards issued to journalists working with online media this year.
Malaysiakini journalists were among those reported to have been issued cards with one-year validity while others, like journalists of news website Twentytwo13, received cards with just six-month validity, the news portal reported.
