KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 26 – The Malaysian Media Council (MMC) will finally become a reality after more than half a century of advocacy, following the bill’s passage in the Dewan Rakyat today.

The idea of a media council was first proposed in 1974 by Malaysia’s second prime minister, the late Tun Abdul Razak Hussein.

For decades, press organisations and journalists have campaigned for an independent, self-regulating media council to replace the Printing Presses and Publications Act (PPPA) 1984. In 2019, the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government provisionally agreed to establish the MMC, and in January 2020, a 17-member pro-tem committee was formed to discuss and refine the draft bill to formalise the body.

The Cabinet approved the bill last year, and Deputy Communications Minister Teo Nie Ching tabled it in Parliament on December 12.

“Now, God willing, we move forward and the next step is to bring this Bill to the Senate. After that, we expect, God willing, it will receive royal assent from the Yang di-Pertuan Agong and be gazetted.

“After it comes into effect, we expect the founding board will be formed and the Malaysian Media Council, we hope that this year, if we are able to, by the middle of this year, we can bring it into existence.

“The process is still far from complete and this is just the beginning, but this represents a significant victory for media freedom in Malaysia,” Digital and Communications Minister, Fahmi Fadzil said in a press conference in the Dewan Rakyat.

According to the Bill, the media council will consist of members from three different categories:

(a) media companies (publisher or senior management)

(b) media associations (memabers, media practitioners and independent media practitioners)

(c) non-media members (academicians, media trainers, NGOs and the public)

The Bill defines media practitioners as employees of a media company that include journalists, editors, photographers, videographers, graphic designers, and others involved in the creation, production and dissemination of content for that company.

Independent media practitioners include non-employees producing news content for a media company or those publishing news content and commentaries which are hosted on online media.

The Bill does not consider the advertising industry, online service providers, and entities that aggregate or reproduce news from other sources as part of the media industry.

Under Section 8 of the Bill, the media council is to be managed by a board that consists of:

*a chairman

*two government representatives (nominated by the communications minister)

*four members representing media companies

*four members representing media associations

*four non-media members

*six members that may be appointed by the aforementioned members to ensure equal representation from the aspects of gender, locality and diversity of media by the languages and the formats

Representatives from the third, fourth and fifth categories, must include at least one female member and one representative from Sabah or Sarawak.

Additionally, a media company that has shared ownership with other media companies can only have one representative on the board.

All board members, including the chairman, will hold office for a maximum of two years and may be reappointed for another two-year term.

Under Subsection (6) of Section 10, those who have served as board members for four years consecutively will be eligible for re-election after a two-year hiatus.

However, the First Schedule allows the communications minister to appoint a founding board, comprising four members each from media companies, media associations, and non-media.

The founding board will be responsible for holding the council’s first general meeting (within six months of the founding boards’ appointment) and oversee the nomination and election of the council’s new board.