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Government plans for a press council are actually plans to restrict press freedom

Malaysian government plans for a media council to enforce by law journalists compliance with a code of ethics are expected to move ahead with a second round of discussions between editors and journalists and the Attorney-General and his team.

The governments moves are described as part of reforms in the name of press freedom, following on from the prime ministers announcement in September to end annual newspaper licenses. In April, amendments to the Printing Press and Publications Act replaced annual licenses with one-off licences good until cancelled, and slightly curbed the home ministers powers over the press, opening his decisions to challenge in court.

However, these reforms do not move Malaysia forward towards greater press freedom but merely return to the regime of control that existed before 1988, and before Operation Lallang, when the Mahathir government locked up dissidents and critics and closed The Star, Watan and Sin Chew Jit Poh. They were allowed to re-open six months later, under stringent conditions.)

The April amendments to the press and publication act merely restored the status quo ante. The difference is that editors agreed to submit to self-regulation in return for withdrawal of annual publishing licenses and the government has expanded the scope of self-regulation to include broadcasters and online media.

A new regime of media control is thus taking shape and journalists are being co-opted into this process by being part of the governments consultations. Todays discussions will probably be about the mechanisms of the new regime: how to control, who to control, and how to punish.

Although the government views this favorably as self-regulation, control of the media lies at the heart of the governments as yet unseen proposals by which editors and journalists will be drawn into the process.

It is common knowledge that:

*Newspaper editors in September agreed to set up a press council based on the voluntary UK Press Complaints Council (now disbanded);

See the original post here:
Opinion: Malaysian Press Council an Ominous Move