The ‘Walk for Press Freedom’ organisers will respond to a ministerial suggestion to put forward terms of reference for a proposed parliamentary select committee on media law reform.

press freedom walk national press club dataran merdeka 010608 06 De facto law minister Zaid Ibrahim had yesterday told the media fraternity and civil society to prepare the terms of reference for the committee.

“For all other select committees set up so far, on rape laws, national integration and integrity, the stakeholders have never been asked to prepare the terms of reference as this is the government’s job,” the organisers said in a statement.

“We are pleasantly surprised by the generous invitation and will seek the collaboration of other parties like the National Union of Journalists, National Press Club and Bar Council to prepare the terms of reference together.”

The statement was endorsed by media reform group Benar, Centre for Independent Journalism, bloggers alliance All Blogs and Writers Alliance for Media Independence.

The select committee is a core demand of a five-month campaign from May 3 - in conjunction with the World Press Freedom Day - to Sept 16.

The ‘Walk for Press Freedom’ yesterday was part of the campaign to highlight the demand for the select committee. The demand was first made by 37 civil society groups in 2006.

Share the blame

The groups are pushing for the committee to be set up, to launch comprehensive reform involving at least five laws - the Printing Presses and Publications Act, Sedition Act, Official Secrets Act, Internal Security Act and Communications and Multimedia Act.

press freedom walk national press club dataran merdeka 010608 01 Yesterday, about 150 people participated in the 1km walk in a spontaneous decision after a dialogue with Zaid, during which he was booed repeatedly over his comments.

The minister said that media practitioners should share the blame for the sorry state of press freedom and should not just blame the government entirely.

He also told media freedom activists and journalists to look at themselves first before telling the government what to do, as he noted that the press is not united on media freedom.

The organisers echoed this in their statement, calling for journalists and editors to come together on media freedom.

“We believe the mainstream media have a professional obligation to advance the cause of media law reform by facilitating public debates and discussions,” they added.

“Notwithstanding this, the government must both recognise the public as a legitimate stakeholder and engage all stakeholders in media law reform.”