PETALING JAYA: The media cards issued to journalists are not a licence needed for them to carry out their jobs, communications minister Fahmi Fadzil said today.
Fahmi said the media cards issued by the information department were merely to make it easier for journalists to access and attend official government events.
“This is not like a medical licence (required by doctors) to practise. (Journalism) is not a profession like lawyers, architects, or doctors, where a licence is needed to work in those fields,” he told reporters at an event at the CelcomDigi Tower here.
Fahmi also defended the ongoing review of the terms and current two-year validity period for media cards.
“It is not meant to restrict freedom of speech. The media card is not a required licence for journalists and (not having one) does not prohibit journalists from reporting, thus (it does) not impede media freedom,” he said.
The minister claimed to have met a journalist from an online media organisation who had an expired media card during the launch of the latest code of ethics for media practitioners.
He said this was one of the factors under consideration in the media card review.
“There are several aspects that I have asked the information department to look into. They are still under review, and hopefully we’ll have another announcement about this soon,” he said, adding that the shortened validity period of media cards had yet to be implemented.
Yesterday, Malaysiakini reported that new media cards for journalists from online media outlets would have shorter validity periods. A later report quoted the information department as saying it was “reviewing the SOPs for issuing media cards”.
Media tags for local journalists are usually valid for two years, while journalists working for foreign media organisations are given a one-year pass.
The National Union of Journalists subsequently urged the government to be transparent about the review of media card terms.
It said the communications ministry should maintain the two-year validity period for media cards, regardless of which local media outlet journalists worked for.
