KUALA LUMPUR: It is estimated that the local media suffers about RM2bil in losses in annual advertisement earnings from a total of RM4.5bil to three social media giants, Meta, Google and TikTok.
Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil said the matter was the biggest and most serious challenge faced by media organisations in the country.
He said the ministry take a serious view of the matter which needed to be studied and given focus as the advertisement revenue is only paid to social media platform providers and not to media organisations.
"I think there should be a balance so that there is a bit of return to media companies...it is still being discussed and I believe all parties can be brought to the negotiation table so that a more conducive environment could be established and realised.
"We can apply how we manage the issue of implementing 5G earlier when I managed to invite all telecommunications companies to discuss and eventually all of us agreed so this way of management can be used to solve this issue of advertising expenses," he said.
Fahmi said this when met by reporters after delivering the keynote address at the Opening Ceremony of 'Transcending Disinformation: Towards Responsible Media Consumption' organised by the Asia Pacific Broadcasting Development Institute (AIBD) here on Thursday (Dec 14).
He said he also hoped that the social media platform would hold many engagement sessions with media organisations to help them use the social media platform effectively and efficiently.
Asked about the current vacant director-general position at the Community Communications Department, Fahmi said he would meet the department's management on Thursday, among other things, to discuss new appointments to fill the position as soon as possible.
He said in the meeting, he would get more information on whether the relevant department already has a replacement for the new director-general who was selected while under the supervision of the Prime Minister's Department, since the department has just been transferred to the Communications Ministry with effect from Wednesday.
"Previously, the Prime Minister (Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim) once said that a successor had been identified, but in terms of his administration, whether it has come into effect or not will be confirmed in today's meeting. There is no deadline but this appointment (director-general of the Community Communications Department) will be made as soon as possible because it is important, give me some time," he said
When asked whether the appointment of the new director-general would be among civil servants or external appointments, Fahmi said he did not know yet and the matter would be discussed during Thursday's meeting.
On November 15, Datuk Dr Mohammad Agus Yusoff confirmed that he had sent his letter of resignation as director-general of the department to the Prime Minister, just nine months after being appointed to lead the department on Feb 2.- Bernama
