Thursday July 27, 2006

Government looking at gaps in printing Act

PUTRAJAYA: The Government will study if the Printing Presses and Publications Act should be amended to include the electronic media and the Internet media.

Deputy Internal Security Minister Datuk Fu Ah Kiow said since the Act was formulated more than 20 years ago, there had been a lot of new developments in the media world and yet only the print media came under the supervision of the ministry.

He said the print media had made numerous references to the anomaly that existed, which allowed the electronic media to get away with things that the print media could not.

“They feel there are double standards, and that it is not a level playing field,” he told reporters yesterday after the closing of the ministry's Mass Media Conference 2006.

“We too admit there is this gap between the various types of media.

“We are looking into whether to set up one unit to monitor the different types of media.

Fu said the study would also ascertain if the Act was still relevant to today’s needs.

“Just because we are studying it doesn't mean that it will be amended,” he added.

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