The Information Ministry has missed the point on why the media council proposal received a lukewarm response from journalists, said the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) today.

Its president Norila Md Daud said the poor response was not because journalists were not supportive of a self-regulating mechanism but because they were against any moves to impose a media council when many legal restrictions on press freedom existed.

"What is the point of a media council when it adds onto existing restrictions? The council should be self-regulatory and encourage greater press freedom.

"It should be established in the context that existing media restrictions be waived," she said when contacted.

Yesterday, Deputy Information Minister Zainuddin Maidin said the government would not act on the proposal for a National Press Council by the Malaysian Press Institute (MPI) due to the "poor response" from editors and journalists.

He added that the proposal was even rejected by the NUJ when first mooted.

Memo to PM

Commenting on this, Norila clarified that NUJ initially took a non-committal stand because it had not conducted a detailed study of MPI's paper on the matter.

Now that it has completed its assessment of the proposal, she said NUJ will make its stand known in a a memorandum to Prime Minister and Internal Security Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi soon. The internal security ministry oversees media laws.

She said the biggest concern of journalists today was to have the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1988 repealed before any self-regulating mechanism took effect.

Norila added that indications from editors also showed that they were of the same view.

"During a Jan 8 meeting organised by (human rights commission) Suhakam on media-related issues, editors who were present spoke in their personal capacities that they were not interested in the media council if legal restrictions on the press remained," she said.

While editors from all the major print dailies sit on the MPI and were therefore assumed to have endorsed the proposal, the final media council draft sent to the government nevertheless failed to spell out that press laws such as the PPPA should be repealed before the council was implemented.

It called instead for a 25-member council to be nominated by a selection committee comprising the Dewan Rakyat speaker, senate president, chief justice of the Federal Court and three editors nominated by MPI.

Under the MPI proposal, the 24-member National Press Council should be funded by Parliament, and submits its report directly to Parliament.

Its main task will be to maintain ethical standards, and preserve media freedom in line with Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The council will also hear complaints and be empowered to "warn, admonish or censure" media organisations, editors and journalists.