Press Statement: The proposed Media Consultative Council (MCC) is a further suppression of Press Freedom in Malaysia
Jul 21, 2011
The proposed Media Consultative Council (MCC) is an extension of the UMNO-BN government’s continued campaign of disinformation in Malaysia. This body will, sadly, contribute nothing to the democratisation of the media but, instead, impose another layer of control on our already heavily shackled press. Further, the MCC will have no interest in upholding our constitutional freedom of expression but merely function to co-opt the media as a cooperating and friendly ally of the government.
Existing media controls in Malaysia take the form of anti-democracy laws like the Printing Presses and Publications Act, Official Secrets Act, Sedition Act, Internal Security Act, and the Communications and Multimedia Act. Expressly, the abovementioned acts allow the government unchecked power and authority. The following is a brief summary of what these laws entail:
(1) PPPA: Absolute discretion in granting/denying/suspending/revoking newspaper licenses, and such action is beyond judicial scrutiny.
(2) OSA: Prerogative to withhold an extensive range of information from the public, and such action is beyond judicial scrutiny.
(3) Sedition Act: Extremely broad definition of Sedition: anything, which “when applied or used in respect of any speech, words, publication or other thing that qualifies the act, speech, words, publication or other thing as having a seditious tendency.”
(4) ISA: Detention without trial for anyone suspected of posing a threat to national security. No judicial recourse for detainees. Journalists have been detained under the ISA before for reporting the truth.
(5) CMA: Lack of narrow definitions on what is deemed offensive hence, possibly including virtually any material on the Internet. Section 211: “No content applications service provider, or other person using a content applications service, shall provide content which is indecent, obscene, false, menacing, or offensive in character with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass any person.”
The structure of media ownership in Malaysia also stifles independent and fair reporting of news. All forms of mainstream media are owned by the State or by proxies of the ruling political party. In recent years, concentration of media ownership in the hands of few also further discouraged competition between media organisations.
I wish to highlight Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states:
“Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes the right to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”
It is clear, our current structure of laws and ownership completely fail to protect this human right. This is despite Article 10 of the Federal Constitution guaranteeing Malaysians the right to free speech and expression.
The MCC is certainly a cause for concern not only for its questionable intentions, but also in the wider context of Malaysia as a democracy. The UMNO-BN government is well aware of how the Internet and social media has freed many Malaysians from its stranglehold on information flows. Why resort to further co-optation of the media now? I find it disturbing for the Information Ministry and Home Ministry to have to concoct consensus among the media on “patriotism”. Given that the UMNO-BN disinformation campaign has always framed dissenters as traitors of the nation, it is indeed worrying that a body is now being set up to teach the media about such narrow notions of “patriotism”. The MCC is, without a doubt, another step backwards for our nation.
I urge PM Najib Razak to re-think the direction he is leading Malaysia towards. He must commit to democratic reforms urgently, i.e. reform the electoral system, free the media, restore judiciary independence, fight corruption, and stop all forms of repression and disinformation immediately.
Chow Kon Yeow
Member of Parliament, Tanjong.
Penang State Exco Member and State Assemblyperson, Padang Kota.
Penang DAP State Chairman.
Daftarlah Sebagai Rakan DAP! 
http://greenstate.penang.gov.my
