KUCHING, May 26: Communications and Multimedia Minister Gobind Singh Deo will look into the claim of national media blacking out Sarawak Barisan Nasional if there is an official complaint.
In a tweet, Gohind responded to state Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah’s recent complaint that Radio Television Malaysia (RTM) no longer aired any news with regards to state BN ministers.
Gobind said Pakatan Harapan upheld press freedom and would not practice media blackouts done by the previous government.
“The policy adopted by PH is that of press freedom. We do not promote or support media blackouts. That is something the previous government did and we disapprove of it,” said Gobind last night.
The Puchong MP also said if Abdul Karim were to write officially to him, he would look into the matter.
“He is welcome to write to me about it officially if he wants to and if he does, I will certainly look into it,” said Gobind.
In an exclusive interview by DayakDaily, Abdul Karim questioned the rationale of RTM for blacking out news of the Sarawak government.
He claimed a number of federal agencies have stopped cooperating with the state government where not only did the state ministerial functions did not receive air-time, but information concerning their programmes and activities was not disseminated.
He also alleged that the usual 7am RTM news programme has also ceased to broadcast any function news related to the Sarawak government, and said that Sarawak should not be penalised by national media just because the Sarawak government is now in the opposition.
It was also his opinion that polarisation notion of “if you are not for us, you are against us” of some policy makers was not healthy. — DayakDaily
