It is high time for Malaysian media players to draw up a code of ethics for journalists,Information Minister Abdul Kadir Sheikh Fadzir reiterated today.

"The people want to know what journalists can and cannot do. While there are responsible journalists, there are also careless ones," he was quoted as saying by Bernama .

"The government does not want to interfere in the freedom of the press but there should be some form of definition of what is expected of journalists."

Abdul Kadir, repeating a call he made last week, said the code of ethics should be drawn up by media practitioners themselves as they know better what was needed from journalists.

"There might have been a code of ethics for journalists previously but the time has changed and the way information is disseminated has also changed, so it is only natural that the old code is replaced with a new one," he added.

The former Culture, Arts and Tourism Minister, recalled that during his tenure at the ministry, travel agents came up with a code of ethics to weed out black sheep in the industry.

"They (travel agents) did it (the code of ethics) themselves. They got together and passed a code of ethics for travel agents to isolate black sheep in the travel industry and the government fully supported that idea," he said.

Journalistic responsibility

Elaborating on the need for a media code of ethics, Abdul Kadir said there was nothing much anyone could do at present if the is misreporting, and that the only recourse is through the legal process.

He proposed that the Malaysian Press Institute or any other related body should handle the enforcement of the code.

"If the government is given enforcement duties, then some people would say that the government is interfering with freedom of the press. Whatever it is, there must be enforcement to give the code more bite," he said.

On the same note, the minister said the proposal should not be viewed as a way to impose controls on media practitioners and their duties.

"We have to understand that we live in a multi-racial society. Every journalist has a responsibility for the country. I hope media practitioners will meet and come up with the code as soon as possible," he added.