A United Nations' conference o­n the future of Malaysian media started today with the government representatives arguing that a Freedom of Information Act was not suitable for the country while media practitioners and civil groups disagreed.

Deputy Home Minister Chor Chee Heung ( photo ) said the government was "by no means a closed-door government" but has retained media laws since independence to safeguard multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-cultural harmony.

"A journalist wants full access to information, everything. But a policy-maker has to make sure that the country is governed well, that citizens from different backgrounds are well-protected and able to live in peace and harmony.

"Let no o­ne be irresponsible enough to start a fire," he told some 100 people attending a panel session themed 'Freedom of information: Access to information as key to building a knowledge society' at the National Conference of the Future of the Media in A Knowledge Society at a hotel in Kuala Lumpur.

Constant contacts

The two-day conference was jointly organised by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Strategic Analysis Malaysia, the research arm of o­nline daily malaysiakini.

Chor said the government has always made constant contacts and constructive engagements with journalists to enable the latter to understand the dilemma in governing the country.

"It is like running a company. The employer will face difficulties in convincing the employees that their demand for a pay rise cannot be met when the economy is bad.

"It is incorrect to say that journalists are the employees but we hope they will understand our dilemma in striking a balance between competing interests of the state and society," he said.

Echoing Chor was Idrus Harun, head of advisory and international division at the Attorney General's Chambers.

Limitations and barriers

He said unlike the United States, freedom of the media and information was not clearly spelt out under the Malaysian Constitution and there could be contentions over whether this freedom was part of freedom of expression as provided for in Article 10.

He added any freedom was not absolute and this freedom of expression in any country must have its limitations and barriers.

"In considering whether there should be a Freedom of Information Act, do we have to remove all the existing laws, and what will happen if we remove all the provisions? All the laws have their object to maintain harmony and peace in the country, we have to consider this," he said.

Malaysiakini

editor-in-chief Steven Gan ( photo ) said citizens have a right to know. He added that all Malaysians would agree that not all information should be made accessible to the public but the existing media laws do not state clearly the type of information which should be withheld.

"We know freedom comes with responsibility. Nobody would argue that there should be a limit to this freedom. But there is no consensus over what the limits are and the government must discuss this with journalists," he said.

Minimise confusion

Gan said a Freedom of Information Act will therefore be useful to minimise the confusion over the accessibility of information.

"A Freedom of Information Act will substitute the existing laws and spell out the limits," he said.

In a knowledge society, the public must be taught not to believe whatever they read from o­ne source of information but to always look for different sources before making their judgement, he added.

He said there were two realities in Malaysian society where the first is made up of people who discussed actively all sorts of issues "in coffee shops and other venues" and the second comprises the local media which keep silent over many issues deemed to be sensitive.

At the question-and-answer session later, Chor was the popular figure fielding many questions from the audience.

Asked if the government held the view that journalists did not subscribe to peace and harmony in the country by demanding for media reform, the minister replied that "many overzealous journalists gave the impression that they want to do away with all laws and that peace is not o­n their mind whenever there is a debate o­n press freedom".

Difficult to convince

Responding to a comment that the Health Ministry should have released the statistics o­n dengue deaths in recent months, he said he also felt that "it does not serve the government any good to keep the statistics from the public because it is o­nly an endemic and not an epidemic".

He stressed that it was difficult for the government to convince journalists and academics regarding the need to legislate press freedom in the country, and that the government will retain laws and amend them to suit changing times and technology as long as it is necessary.

Earlier, coordinator of Inisiatif Wartawan Padmaja Padman said in her presentation at the start of the panel session that the information chase in Malaysia was tiresome because of several factors including tedious procedures and delayed responses.

Other factors such as distribution of fragmented information throughout the bureaucracy and limited recourse to official or judicial appeal also make it difficult to obtain information, she said.

The session's moderator and Mimos vice-president Dr KJ John in summing up the panel discussion said the future challenge in creating a knowledge society is to help the public distinguish between information and knowledge as well as to encourage them to speak up.

The conference was officiated by Maxine Olson, UNDP resident representative for Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei.

Dr Mustafa K Anuar, a communication lecturer at Universiti Sains Malaysia, also gave a presentation which outlined the media development in Malaysia since independence at the function.