By Shikin Louis
KUCHING, May 5: The Sarawak government hopes the first ever Sarawak Media Conference (SMeC) will pave the way for a bigger scale event in the future, says Deputy Minister in the Premier’s Department (Corporate Affairs and Ukas) Datuk Abdullah Saidol.
He said Sarawak aims to turn the upcoming SMeC—taking place concurrently with the National Journalists’ Day (Hawana) celebration from May 25 to 27—into an annual event.
“That is why we will host the inaugural SMeC on a smaller scale this year—only at Sarawak-level.
“Probably in the future, we will expand the media conference to become an international event that will involve speakers and delegates from neighbouring countries.
“This is because we think the role of the media is becoming more important to close the information gap between the government administration and the community,” he said during a Hari Raya Aidilfitri gathering organised by Sarawak Public Communications Unit (Ukas) at English Tea House in Petra Jaya here today.
Abdullah further said the journalism world today is facing challenges from unofficial media comprising netizens who share stories and events on social media and subsequently take on the role of reporters.
“However, among the concerned netizens who like to share information with the masses, some of them would use the information content to influence others to create doubts and so on.
“When everybody goes on TikTok, Facebook and other social media platforms, some of the contents are half-cooked news so they have to go and verify the validity of the stories.
“This is where the journalists have to ensure that the information is being disseminated ethically and with facts,” he added. — DayakDaily
