Kuala Lumpur: Journalists should not regard the proposed National Media Council as an attempt by the Government to curb their freedom but, instead, accept the idea as a means to protect them, Information Minister Datuk Zainuddin Maidin said.
He said the media council would not be controlled by the Government but operating like independent bodies that had been formed by the Government such as the Malaysian Human Rights Commission (Suhakam), Institute of Strategic and International Studies (Isis) and Malaysian Institute of Islamic Understanding (IKIM).
"The media council will be more for intellectual exercises like to upgrade journalists or to educate journalists," he said after opening a Workshop on Conflict Reporting jointly organised by Telekom Malaysia and the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) here.
He said that as an ex-editor himself, he was aware of the fear among journalists over the establishment of such a council which had been mooted since the days when the late Tun Abdul Razak Hussein was Deputy Prime Minister.
Zainuddin said press members should not harbour such fears against the Government but should instead realise the threats that could be posed by individuals or organisations that could intimidate them with million-ringgit lawsuits.
Even as a former president of NUJ, Zainuddin said, he had so far yet to be able to persuade the union to accept the idea of the Council but held a belief that they would come to a rationalisation to concur with the proposal.
Meanwhile, NUJ President Norila Daud said a motion on the formation of the media council would be tabled at the union's biennial delegates conference on Sept. 21 to be discussed and debated among the members.
"I don't know what the other journalists think but we are going to table it and whether the response is positive or negative, we will come back to Zam," she said.
She said Zainuddin's elaboration on the Council's purpose today had given her "a new perspective" as in the past, the union had taken a stand that they would support the formation of such a council after the government agreed to abolish existing laws that were deemed to be curbing press freedom.
