Stakeholders in the media industry today agreed to select a 10-member committee to look into the setting up of a media council and to draft a code of ethics for journalists to pave the way for an eventual repeal of restrictive laws.

The decision was reached at a day-long media consultation organised by the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) which included the participation of some 60 individuals comprising media owners, editors, journalists and civil society groups.

Speaking at a press conference later, Suhakam commissioner Zainah Anwar said two individuals would be selected from each of the following groups: media owners, editors, journalists and civil society groups.

The remaining two members would be selected from members of the media in Sabah and Sarawak respectively.

"We have asked for the names of the nominees to be submitted to Suhakam by the end of this month.

"We hope that the committee would be able to meet for the first time in February to consider points made on the (media council and code of ethics issues) earlier by the Malaysian Press Institute (MPI) and by the participants at the consultation today," she said.

Contentious issue

Elaborating on the discussions, Zainah said a key development was the general agreement that there is a need for a media council to regulate the industry.

"We did not aim at reaching a final conclusion for the issues today. The fact that all stakeholders accept that there is a need for a media council is major progress. It is now the details that are in question," she added.

Zainah said the main issue of contention which has to be resolved by the committee is whether the council should be self-regulated or set up by an act of Parliament.

"There are those who are in favour of the council being a statutory body set up by an act of Parliament. If it is not done (in this manner), some may not want to join the council. On the other hand, those who are in favour of a voluntary model do not want more legislation to govern the workings of the council."

Once the committee has decided on the appropriate model, Zainah said it would have to draft a constitution for the media council which would address related issues such as prospective funding of the council, its jurisdictional powers, its members as well as complaints mechanism.

In addition, the commissioner said the committee would also have to adopt a code of ethics acceptable to journalists.

"At the moment, all stakeholders seem happy with the draft code which was done by the MPI. This could be used as the starting point," she said.

Journalism council

However, a more immediate task for the committee, said Zainah, is to ensure that all interested parties are sufficiently briefed on the developments surrounding the move to set up the media council.

"One complaint that we received was that many people felt they were not consulted earlier. Some journalists said they were not briefed and some editors too were not aware of the discussions that have already taken place although they should have been consulted earlier," she said.

Earlier, another Suhakam commissioner Prof Hamdan Adnan said the government had responded to recommendations made by the commission following a workshop on media freedom on Aug 1, 2002.

The recommendations call for the government to review a number of restrictive laws, the repeal of the publication licencing regime, the enactment of a freedom of information act, and the formation of an independent media council.

"The government's response stated that the scope of the proposed media council was too wide and too general as it covers all types of media," he said.

In a written response to Suhakam in Dec 2003, Hamdan said the government suggested that a journalism council be set up instead if the main reason for the setting up of a media council is to raise journalism standards.

"The government also stated that further study would be needed to ensure that a journalism council, if such a body was to be established, would need to follow existing legal guidelines to ensure that freedom given to it would not be abused.

"What the response did not address was whether the setting up of an impartial, independent and self-regulating media council would in any way lead to an irresponsible press," he said.

Repeal laws

Questioned further about the implications of the government's reply during the press conference, Hamdan said Suhakam is "not clear (about) what the government means" with its proposal and whether the journalism council proposal was intended to replace the media council.

He said this uncertainty was what prompted Suhakam to call for the media consultation today.

Hamdan added that Suhakam would resubmit its recommendations to the government after it receives a report from the to-be-set-up media committee.

The idea for a media council came about in 1999 when more than 500 journalists signed a petition to Home Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi calling for the repeal of the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984 (PPPA).

The journalists had put forward the media council proposal as an alternative governing structure for the industry in place of the laws.

The government later commissioned a report by the MPI which recommended for a statutory medial council to be set up, as opposed to a self-regulatory one, causing contention between different groups of stakeholders as to the preferred model.

To date, however, the government has not made any commitment as to whether it would repeal the PPPA once a media council is established.