Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil has emphasised that the latest version of the Malaysian Code of Ethics for Journalists would not restrict media freedom in the country.
Fahmi told reporters on Thursday (Feb 22) that some of the comments on the revised version of the code were unfair towards the Information Department (JaPen) and the Malaysian Press Institute (MPI) who drafted it, adding that it was necessary to update the code especially in the era of artificial intelligence, blogs and online media which did not exist when the original code was introduced.
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Fahmi told reporters on Thursday (Feb 22) that some of the comments on the revised version of the code were unfair towards the Information Department (JaPen) and the Malaysian Press Institute (MPI) who drafted it, adding that it was necessary to update the code especially in the era of artificial intelligence, blogs and online media which did not exist when the original code was introduced.
WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news
SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar
LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline
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NewsTranscript
00:00 A lot of people are claiming that this is the government's way of restricting media freedom and also their way of deriving the AT&T News Law. So what are your thoughts on that?
00:11 The Code of Ethics for journalists has been there since 1989. So those who are saying that this is a new document perhaps have forgotten that actually it's based on the document that was released by MPI in 1989.
00:32 So it's always been there. All of you who have cut Perakuan Media even before the launch a few days ago, you received your cut Perakuan Media based on that 1989 Code of Ethics.
00:46 But if you were to look at the original Code of Ethics, it includes phrases like "to curb communism" which no longer is an issue in Malaysia because they no longer exist. So it's a bit anachronistic.
01:00 Plus we have newer technologies like AI, blogs, and online media which was never really at that time envisioned. So we have to update the document. The document is still MPI's.
01:15 But Jabatan Penerangan along with a number of other strategic partners have assisted including USM, UKM, have assisted to update the document. And if you were to compare the two documents, they are almost the same.
01:30 The preamble is the same. There are still eight key points. It's the same document. It's not at all. Nothing to do with curbing media freedom.
01:42 So I think sometimes some of the comments that have been made have been unfair to Jabatan Penerangan, have been unfair to MPI, the Malaysian Press Institute.
01:54 Because the document, if you had attended, for those of you who can look back at the video of the launch, the CEO of MPI, Dato' Mustafa, said in his speech that this document is the original one, it's from 1989.
02:11 So we cannot discount or we cannot nullify this fact. It's there, it's from 1989.
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