The government is in the process of reviewing all legislation and regulations governing the media in order to help maintain peace and security, said Information Minister Abdul Kadir Sheikh Fadzir today.

He told reporters at Parliament lobby that the review is being carried out by the Information Ministry together with four other ministries.

These, he added, were the Internal Security Ministry, Energy, Water and Telecommunications Ministry, Home Affairs Ministry and the Culture, Arts and Heritage Ministry.

"The creation of a Bangsa Malaysia is the main agenda for Malaysians and the country. We are all in agreement with this, be it the opposition or the government," Abdul Kadir told reporters.

He said the ministries concerned will clean up, standardise and solidify these laws to achieve better enforcement and implementation.

"At present, there are overlapping laws and the ministries involved are not sure who is in charge. This is a little chaotic," he added.

Abdul Kadir said the laws being reviewed involved content regulation and censorship.

He said when the consultation process ends, the agreed recommendations from these ministries will be presented to the cabinet by the end of next month.

On Monday, the mnister reiterated his call on the local media to draw up a code of ethics but was strongly cautioned by advocate groups against intefering in editorial decisions.

Visison 2020

Meanwhile, Abdul Kadir said this afternoon that the Information Ministry has an important role to play in helping the nation to achieve Vision 2020.

"Like I've constantly stressed, the ministry through its agencies like Radio Television Malaysia (RTM) will do everything we can to help the country achieve this aim.

Abdul Kadir said he was still new in his post and needed the time to undertake a revamp of the agencies, such as TV 1 and TV2, under his ministry.

In the previous cabinet under former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Abdul Kadir served as the Culture, Arts and Tourism Minister.