NOVEMBER 3 — I read with great interest the piece on the media council written by media veteran Datuk Yong Soo Heong.
I must say I concur with his conclusion that after 50 years of waiting, the Malaysian Media Council is noticeably slow to respond.
As a former NUJ leader during the glory days of the Malaysian print media, I expected more from the current protem committee which is led by Malaysiakini’s founding CEO Premesh Chandran.
The key issue is poor communication since the media council bill was passed by Dewan Rakyat in Feb and Dewan Negara in March.
For example why did the media council take so long to speak up when minister Nga Kor Ming conducted himself in an unseemly manner when responding to a journalist’s question a few days ago?
We have seen in the past that arrogance and intimidation from politicians can affect news coverage.
Now that the medial council’s AGM is due next week on Nov 7, there are many questions to be answered.
Why has the team under Premesh Chandran not gone around to newsrooms giving talks and explainers? Or held some online briefings?
The initial deadline for membership was not met. There is no information on how many members of the media fraternity are being represented. The criteria for membership and the voting mechanisms have been very poorly explained.
I believe that the protem council appears to be heavily skewed against mainstream media. Is this why information is not widely available?
Let’s not forget that the media is constantly evolving and this has resulted in many job cuts. We need a media council to represent us through these changing times. The welfare of media industry workers must be held paramount.
* Jason Cheah is a former NUJ-Star chairman.
** This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.
