Radio Televisyen Malaysia (RTM) broadcasts news according to their overall value and provides coverage of news on the opposition too, depending on their importance.

heng seai kie Deputy Information, Communication and Culture Minister Senator Heng Seai Kie said programmes and news items were broadcast by the station based on certain criteria for worthiness, such as of national interest, they were current, had human interest element and were of public interest.

"Actually, RTM's news coverage has to do with its main role as the official government media, so it's different from the private television stations'.

“We have a committee that manages issues to determine their news worthiness," she said in reply to Ibrahim Ali (Independent-Pasir Mas) in the Dewan Rakyat today.

'We covered PAS muktamar'

Heng said RTM at the same time, always tried to inject something new into its news presentation and informative programmes in order to attract viewers' attention.

"RTM also provides coverage on community-oriented programmes, and which have human values and reflect current developments the world over," she said.

Heng said that in managing news and information, RTM was constantly carrying out upgrading efforts in news presentation by using internal expertise and from the higher learning institutions.

"We're also always looking for new personalities from different races to present the news in a better and unique way so that RTM's news programme reflects the 1Malaysia concept," she said.

Heng said RTM also provided coverage on news on the opposition, depending on whether it was of public interest or not.

"RTM covers all quarters, whether they are Barisan Nasional or not. For instance, we covered the recent PAS general assembly," she said.

Two-day extension

In another development, the second meeting of the second session of the 12th Parliament which is supposed to end on June 30, is extended by two days for the completion of certain matters.

Dewan Rakyat Deputy Speaker Datuk Ronald Kiandee said Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak had informed Parliament that the current sitting would be held for another two days.

"This is to enable the Bills to be passed and other relevant matters to be completed as provided for under Point 11(2) of the parliamentary Standing Order," he said.

The current sitting started on June 15.