[post updated with link to Spanish version]
This is my first post for Global Voices, so yay!
Amidst a number of recent journalistic blunders, Malaysia’s Home Minister, Syed Hamid Albar, announced that the government has full intention of establishing a national media policy, together with a regulatory body over Malaysian media. Syed Hamid said that that a policy is currently being drafted and also that the foundations of a National Media Council is being established.
Syed Hamid’s announcement is notwithstanding long-held objections by journalists, activists and civil society groups.
The government has not been precise on why a National Media Council and policy should be implemented. The purpose for setting up a Media Council in 2001, according to the then Information Parliamentary Secretary, Zainuddin Maidin, was so that journalists remain sensitive to the political and social scenarios, and to enable chief editors to contend with bigger problems.