GEORGE TOWN: The media accreditation card issued by the Malaysian Information Department (JaPen) is not a licence for journalists to practise their trade but just a medium to facilitate coverage, especially of official government programmes, said Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil.
Fahmi reiterated that journalism is not like the legal, accounting and medical professions which require practitioners to obtain practising certificates from their respective governing bodies such as the Bar Council and Association of Chartered Certified Accountants.
"The JaPen media accreditation card is issued to make it easier for journalists to attend and follow official government events. If it's a corporate function, their corporate communication will do the media invitation and they expect those invited media to attend but it's up to them to allow them in or not," he told reporters after visiting the Penang House of Music (PHoM) at Komtar here today.
He said the JaPen media card issue was raised by the foreign correspondents club as Malaysians working with international media agencies were said to be given cards with a short validity period.
"Apart from that, several quarters are also questioning the shorter validity period for online media journalists and there are allegations that some parties are misusing these media accreditation cards.
"I have asked JaPen to look into all these issues and an announcement will be made by JaPen in the near future regarding the issues raised," he said.
He said JaPen is updating and streamlining the validity periods of the media accreditation card for all organisations according to certain standard operating procedures (SOP).
Meanwhile, Fahmi said he had directed MyCreative Ventures to help PHoM resolve its operational problems.
He said MyCreative Ventures chairman Datuk Muhammad Bakhtiar Wan Chik would be meeting PHoM founder Paul Augustin to work out a short-term solution.
"PHoM has been operating at Komtar for about seven years and maybe the sustainability of this model of operation needs to be studied to ensure its continued operation. Maybe not at Komtar but at another place," he said.
Augustin was reported to have said recently that PHoM, which was established in 2016 with Penang government assistance, was facing financial problems and planned to cease operations.-- BERNAMA