KUALA LUMPUR: Persatuan Seniman Malaysia (Seniman) president Zed Zaidi has urged the Digital Ministry to come up with guidelines to prevent social media influencers from raising sensitive issues on their podcasts.
Zed said in an interview with Berita Harian Online today that social media celebrities have to toe the line when it comes to commenting on sensitive topics such as religion, race and royalty, for the sake of national unity and harmony.
"Live sessions or podcasts are very popular today. But they need to be regulated, lest celebrities and their guests say things that offend certain groups of Malaysians. Malaysia may be a free and democratic society, but freedom of speech must always have its limits, people cannot be allowed to make statements that hurt entire communities," said Zed.
Yesterday, actor, singer, producer, director and comedian Datuk Afdlin Shauki urged fellow artistes commenting on issues of public interest on social media to be mindful of sensitive topics at all times.
"We should always watch what we say lest we cause a public uproar by touching on such topics. It may result in a loss of support from fans," he said.
Afdlin was commenting on popular actor Datuk Rosyam Nor's recent statement on his Suhan channel podcast which caused an uproar amongst Netizens.
Rosyam expressed his personal opinion that it might be good to have prostitution dens for foreign workers to visit as this could prevent them from committing sexual crimes.
Rosyam subsequently apologised for his statement, and said that he had never expected the statement to go viral.