BY LOH FOON FONG
KUALA LUMPUR: The Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ) wants the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) to rescind the fine imposed on BFM radio over an interview with an Islamic scholar.
Its director Sonia Randhawa claimed the RM10,000 fine had been wrongly imposed on BFM radio as it was onerous to require broadcasters to submit all their content for pre-approval by the regulator.
“This is an infringement on the freedom of expression and damaging to media freedom, in particular,” she said in a statement issued together with CIJ co-director Jac SM Kee yesterday.
BFM’s interview with Islamic scholar Reza Aslan was aired on Oct 21 last year and the latter made comments disputing the Court of Appeal’s decision which barred Catholic newsletter Herald from using the word “Allah” to refer to God.
On Tuesday, the Malaysian Insider reported that MCMC had deemed it to be in breach of the conditions under their Individual Content Applications Service Provider (CASP-I) broadcast license, which required the regulator’s approval before any live or delayed telecast.
CIJ urged the MCMC to ensure that any such conditions imposed be subjected to the Federal Constitution, in particular Article 10, which guarantees freedom of expression.
Sonia said discussions on ethnicity or religion should not be curbed simply on the notion that the feelings of a particular religion’s adherents might be hurt, as it was harmful to a proper discourse.
She maintained that the government and the MCMC should have made their own arguments against them, rather than shut a down healthy debate.
She said MCMC should review the conditions imposed on broadcasters and remove any requirement for the pre-approval of all content.
No comments:
Post a Comment