KUALA LUMPUR, March 7 — Conventional media organisations in the country are today told to review and re-coordinate several aspects of their business models to make them compatible and meet the needs of current times.
Communications and Digital Minister Fahmi Fadzil said this was important to ensure there was no negative impact on media organisations, especially the broadcasting industry, with the shrinking advertising expenditure and the shift to digital platforms.
“I have met and discussed with various parties. This is a big issue because, in terms of advertising expenditure, which used to be very helpful for the operation of media companies, it is shrinking now,” he told reporters after opening the Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) Digital Broadcasting Symposium (DBS) 2023 here today.
Fahmi said he would not treat differently the private and public media organisations in the issue as both play an important role in ensuring the process of checks and balances, as well as accurate reports, reach the people.
Meanwhile, he said the government was also looking into improving and amending several laws, including the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 and the Malaysian National Film Development Corporation (Finas) Act 1981 to meet current needs.
However, he said any amendment to the laws should take into account several aspects, such as public safety, freedom of speech and freedom of the media.
“The way we look at the concept of content, we need to translate it into law. When these laws were enacted before, there was no talk about content, but now this (content) is the reality,” he said and expressed the hope that amendments to the laws concerned could be tabled in the Dewan Rakyat in June or October this year.
Regarding the ABU 2023 symposium, Fahmi said he hoped that all participants could discuss the changes taking place in the field of broadcasting, including changes in the business model or devices used by the media industry today.
The symposium also featured exhibitions by 225 broadcasting organisations from 53 countries.
— Bernama
