A coalition of artists and creative industry players has urged viewers to boycott television programmes for three hours next month.

Viewers are invited to turn off their television sets during the prime time hours of 8pm to 11pm on Nov 11 to support a protest against "oppression" of creative industry workers in the country.

Dubbed 'Switch Off '14 – Program Interrupted', the boycott is to pressure television studios to raise rates paid for content programming which the coalition says is unreasonably low.  

Coalition head and president of the Federation of Screen Guild Malaysia (Gafim) Jurey Latiff Rosli said a meeting is being arranged with the Ministry of Communications and Multimedia for the group to present its demands.

Among the group backing the effort were the Film Directors Association of Malaysia (FDAM), the Actors Guild of Malaysia (Seniman), Professional Film Workers Association of Malaysia (Profima) and the Malaysian Musician and Singers Association (Papita).

"I am very positive that something good will happen on the coming Nov 11," Jurey said at a press conference today.

“We wish to urge the people to save electricity by shutting of their television from 8pm until 11pm. I suggest that we spent time with our families instead on that day,” said actor Gibran Agi.

The actor, who is a Universiti Islam Antarabangsa Malaysia law graduate, made the sarcastic remark at the press conference as the Switch Off '14 campaign’s strategy director.

Apart from demanding higher fees, the campaign also urges the government to introduce a Creative Content Industry Act, fairer intellectual property rights, and fairer allocation of TV programming slots with emphasis on having 70 percent local content.

They also urged enforcement of the Made in Malaysia policy and the Puducitra policy.

The latter makes it compulsory for actors, directors and other film industry players to join an association recognised by the National Film Development Corporation (Finas) to help protect their rights.

These associations include Seniman for actors, FDAM for directors, and Profima.

The coalition also demanded that the government establish a ‘one stop centre’ to regulate the industry, and that policies involving the industry should be made by with the involvement of the industry players.

They also urge television stations to provide more slots for patriotic content, tax exemptions for corporations that sponsored local film production, insurance schemes, and grants to develop the creative content industry.

Among those present at the press conference today were prominent local actors and actresses Zed Zaidi, Fauziah Nawi, Norish Karman, Shahrul Nizam Noor, Norlia Ghani, Normah Damanhuri, Harun Salim Bachik, and film director Yusof Kelana.