PETALING JAYA: The Communications and Digital Ministry is studying whether the Communications and Multimedia Act should be amended to bring it in line with efforts to set up a special police team to combat child pornography.
Minister Fahmi Fadzil said the Cabinet felt that there was a need to revisit certain laws in an effort to provide better protection to children and women against pornographic activities and sexual violence.
“This is something which we will announce once we have begun a series of engagements across different ministries.
“For example, the Communications and Multi-media Act, we will see if there are parts of the law that need to be amended to save and protect women and children while not necessarily curbing whatever commitments the government has made to IT companies,” he told reporters after opening the Selangor PKR information convention here yesterday, Bernama reported.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, when tabling Budget 2023 on Friday, said a special team under D11 Unit of the Royal Malaysia Police would be set up to combat child pornography and that it would cooperate with other agencies to nab the perpetrators involved.
On the ministry’s engagement with Digital Nasional Berhad (DNB) and all telecommunications service providers to discuss 5G coverage in the country, Fahmi said a decision on whether to maintain the single wholesale model in rolling out the network would be reached by the end of next month.
“More importantly, we want to have 5G coverage in 80% of populated areas throughout the country by the end of this year.
“The price should be reasonable to the people,” he said, adding that a decision on the cooperation between DNB and telecommunications companies in implementing the 5G network would also be reached soon.
He said the engagement session discussed, among other things, the need for DNB to be managed in a more transparent and open manner.
Last month, Fahmi said an announcement on the 5G implementation by DNB would be made with several improvements by the end of March.
