KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 26 – The Malaysian Media Council (MMC) will finally become a reality after more than half a century of advocacy, following the bill’s passage in the Dewan Rakyat today.
The idea of a media council was first proposed in 1974 by Malaysia’s second prime minister, the late Tun Abdul Razak Hussein.
For decades, press organisations and journalists have campaigned for an independent, self-regulating media council to replace the Printing Presses and Publications Act (PPPA) 1984. In 2019, the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government provisionally agreed to establish the MMC, and in January 2020, a 17-member pro-tem committee was formed to discuss and refine the draft bill to formalise the body.
The Cabinet approved the bill last year, and Deputy Communications Minister Teo Nie Ching tabled it in Parliament on December 12.
More to come
