Media Council bill to include grievance mechanism

PARLIAMENT | The government intends to include a grievance mechanism in the draft bill of the proposed Malaysian Media Council.

Communications and Digital Deputy Minister Teo Nie Ching said that this was to allow media practitioners to “self-regulate” in instances of published articles containing misinformation and disinformation.

“In terms of legal aspects, there is definitely a grievance mechanism where if anyone is dissatisfied with a (news) report may lodge a complaint with the Media Council.

“The Media Council may then form a committee to receive the complaint and come out with findings and a decision on whether the report was unethical or did not contravene media ethics.

“We hope with this council, there will be more responsible media practitioners and an authoritative body,” she told the Dewan Rakyat today.

Teo (above) was responding to Wong Shu Qi (Harapan-Kluang) who asked how the media industry can self-regulate to prevent misinformation and disinformation.

Meanwhile, Teo said that the ministry will begin engaging with tech giants in an effort to curb the financial strain faced by media outlets.

This comes after Mumtaz Md Nawi (PN-Tumpat) raised the issue that many media companies had different sources of income.

“We understand that media companies are facing financial constraints as a lot of their current revenue comes from advertisements.

“Advertisements are now going to tech giants such as Google and other search engines.

“The ministry intends to begin engagements with these tech giants to mimic formulas in other countries whereby a portion of the revenue from advertisements could be returned to media companies in Malaysia,” she said. - Mkini