BANGI: The government is looking into ownership of media companies by trustees or cooperatives to counter political influence on news reporting.
Veteran journalist Datuk A. Kadir Jasin, who is special adviser to the prime minister on media and communications, said this was to cut down on the indirect influence on these media companies via government-linked companies, among others.
“Back then (before the 14th general election), the issue was Umno’s influence on the media. Now, there are still government-linked companies where there arises concerns.
“So now (the government is looking into) cooperatives or trustees (owning media company shares) so that political parties or GLCs do not own media companies.
“This needs assistance from all (stakeholders). Instead of media being owned by political parties, it should instead be owned by the people,” he said.
Kadir said this in a speech at the 2018 National Media Forum: Realising Pakatan Harapan Era Media Freedom at Universiti Tenaga Nasional.
Also present at the forum were Utusan Malaysia assistant chief editor 1 Datuk Mohd Zaini Hassan, Malay Mail managing editor Leslie Lau, Malaysiakini founder Premesh Chandran and Sinar Harian editorial executive adviser Datuk Abd Jalil Ali.