Panellists at a forum o­n the proposed media council today sought to reassure journalists that the council would not become an additional tool for the government to further restrict the press.

During the discussion organised by the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) in conjunction with World Press Freedom Day tomorrow, journalists were told that a media council would help raise professionalism in the industry and thereby increase respect for the profession.

The three speakers at the forum in Kuala Lumpur were journalism lecturers Prof Mohd Safar Hasim of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and Associate Prof Dr Mokhtar Muhammad of Universiti Teknologi Mara as well as New Straits Times Assistant Editor Salahuddin Othman.

Statutory vs voluntary

Addressing immediate concerns that the media council would be used as a tool to control the press, Mohd Safar said this is unlikely to happen as the government would not be involved directly with the council.

"Two-thirds of the council will be made up of journalists. The remainder are professionals. So this body will be run by journalists.

"The government will o­nly be involved in so far that the Media Council Act has to be discussed and passed in Parliament," he said.

Safar, who helped put together the first media council draft, said the proposal for the council to be set up by an Act of Parliament came from the committee's observation that o­nly councils set up in this manner are effective.

"The structure is based o­n our study of more than fifty media councils in the world. The o­nly working o­nes are those formed through Parliament. The voluntary o­nes die after two years or so," he said.

According to Safar, the main objectives of the council would be to upgrade professional standards and to provide the public with an access channel to media practitioners.

"For instance, various organisations now have different code of ethics for journalists but these have not worked because there is no organisation to implement the code," he said.

Mega-lawsuits

Echoing this view, Mokhtar said based o­n his contacts with students and the public, o­ne complaint has been against inappropriate headlines in newspapers.

"Sometimes, journalists go beyond their ethics. We must establish what ethics we are following," he noted.

In addition, the journalism professor said a media council is necessary to discourage the use of mega-lawsuits against media organisations for alleged libellous reports.

"The media council will be able to self-regulate and self-censor. And they can settle some issues outside of courts. We have cases heard of RM60 million lawsuits which is ridiculous. With the media council, journalists or those involved would be able to settle the issue amicably outside of court."

Self-regulation

Meanwhile, Salahuddin said a press council would be necessary for media organisations to show the government that they are capable of regulating themselves without the use of laws such as the Official Secrets Act or the Sedition Act.

"We must build our own parameters. The media council should be in that parameter so that we can tell the government later that we have covered ourselves. So maybe we can do away with the laws," he said.

Salahuddin said he was not bothered by the restrictive laws as there are ways of working around them. "The laws are good. The problem is o­nly in how people utilise them."

He said for those who are concerned with the use of such laws, the media council would be a good starting point for the media to convince the government that the press is able to stay within the permitted parameters voluntarily.

However, he cautioned that although people are in favour of replacing the laws with the media council, this should not be used as a platform to "liberalise ourselves too much".

Responding to questions o­n why there is little discussion of a repeal of the permit and licensing provisions under the Printing Presses and Publications Act, Safar explained that it was not within the purview of the committee to recommend for the repeal of the law.

"It is the committee's view that we can o­nly propose something that can be considered. Abolishing laws are not within the purview of the committee.

"I don't know whether the committee did the right thing but if people feel that this is important, they should bring up the issue again and remind the government of this," he said.

On another comment from the floor that the present draft appears to favour media owners by discouraging mega-lawsuits rather than allowing more room for journalists to work in, the panelists o­nly advised for journalists to submit their views so that they could be considered in the next draft.

Unfair representation

Earlier, NUJ president Norila Mohd Daud said in her opening address that the union was concerned over the small role it was given in the proposed media council.

"The draft of the proposed media council which we received sometime middle of last year from the MPI was quite alarming. Firstly the composition of the membership of the proposed council does not give the union fair representation.

"Out of 24 seats, the union is o­nly given o­ne seat and this is a fearful proposal as it does not reflect the importance of the union being the o­nly body protecting the welfare of journalists," she said, pointing out that the NUJ represented 1,400 journalists nationwide.

Norila expressed concern that the proposal for the council to have punitive powers to reprimand individual journalists or editors would further worsen the already restricted working environment of journalists.

"It may hinder press freedom (although) the main aim for the council's formation was to accelerate freedom of press," she said.

In addition, the NUJ president opposed to the setting up of the media council as a statutory body because of the connotations that the body might not be independent of government interference.

"This (statutory) entity will always be prejudicial in the minds of the public as being linked to the government and as not truly independent," she said.

Norila said the union is currently in the process of compiling feedback from its members to the media council draft so that they could be forwarded to the Home Ministry.

"The union has sent a letter to the home minister (Abdullah Ahmad Badawi) requesting that the proposal be held back until (after) we conduct a survey among our members," she added.

During the NUJ's biennial delegates conference last September, the union resolved to take a more pro-active role in the setting up of a self-regulatory media council.

Among other proposals, the union said it wanted a larger role in the proposed media council, which presently includes heavier representation by media organisations.