Melaka Polls: Candidates Advised To Respect Media Practitioners

MELAKA, Nov 1 (Bernama) -- Candidates contesting in the 16th Melaka state election have been advised to respect and appreciate the presence of media practitioners throughout the campaign period, said Communications Minister Datuk Seri Fahmi Fadzil.

He said media practitioners are urged to lodge police reports promptly if they encounter any uncomfortable situations while carrying out their duties.

Fahmi said media practitioners are also encouraged to lodge complaints with the Malaysian Media Council if their content was plagiarised or used without permission.

“We do not want any party stealing information or content from a media organisation without giving credit or acknowledging the source.

“If anything of this nature occurs, I hope members of the media affected will report it to the Malaysian Media Council,” he told reporters after visiting the Communications Ministry’s media centre at a hotel in Ayer Keroh here today.

Also present were Communications Ministry secretary-general Datuk Abdul Halim Hamzah and Information Department (JAPEN) director-general Erwin Khairul Ahmad.

The 16th Melaka state polls officially began yesterday with the nomination of candidates, while early voting is scheduled for Nov 10 and polling on Nov 14, following the dissolution of the state legislative assembly effective on Sept 23.

Meanwhile, Fahmi said apart from the main media centre in Ayer Keroh, 39 National Information Dissemination Centres (NADI) across Melaka have also been designated as media centres to facilitate media practitioners in carrying out their duties.

He said the media centres could also serve as rest areas for media practitioners between assignments before they proceed to their next locations.

“We have also set up a Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) complaints counter for media colleagues who encounter internet connectivity problems while on duty, and I also encourage them to download the MCMC Nexus application.

“This way, if there are any locations in Melaka that are ‘blind spots’, we hope our media colleagues can help bring them to our attention through the use of the MCMC Nexus application,” he said.

-- BERNAMA