KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian news agencies have welcomed the government's move to introduce new legislation mandating equitable compensation for technology companies that consume content produced by local media organisations.
Save Journalism Committee chairman Rafiq Razali said that Communications and Digital Minister Fahmi Fadzil's announcement yesterday was a positive step towards introducing such measures in the country following the engagement sessions held with the ministry.
The committee, which operates under the ambit of Malaysia Newspaper Publisher Association (MNPA), is said to be on the same page over the matter and hoping for similar legislation to be drafted and implemented here the soonest.
"News media are funded through advertising revenue and since this has gone away to the digital spectrum, there is a real risk that fair journalism will not receive sufficient funds and end up not be sustainable in the long run.
"If it is not funded, then the sanctity of journalism is at risk.
"If this initiative is not pushed through, then the repercussions to the industry will be catastrophic," he said in a special interview session with the New Straits Times today.
As media agencies were continuously losing its advertisement revenue to tech giants such as Google and Meta, the companies had to resort to rationalisation of its operations including trimming down its hard working journalists who are constantly on the ground to seek valuable and credible news for the public.
Rafiq, who is also Media Prima Berhad group managing director, said that media agencies would want to avoid this to continuously happen.
He stressed that the new framework was not to serve as a protectionism mechanism for the industry, but to ensure the good work of those in the journalism field were fairly compensated.
"Real journalism is not cheap, it requires resources to train and prepare them with necessary equipment and skills.
"The content consumed from the platforms comes from news organisations, hence the cost of journalism should be co-funded by parties that benefit commercially from it.
"That is the main push for the initiative," he added.
Yesterday, Fahmi said that Malaysia had the democratic right to do what was necessary to ensure the sustainability of the media industry and protect its work.
He said the government was ready to assist in negotiations for local media companies to get compensation from tech giants, whether directly or indirectly.
Australia introduced News Media Bargaining and Digital Platforms Bargaining Code which resulted in Google and Facebook agreeing to pay A$220 million in compensation to media groups in the country last year.
Similar framework was also implemented in Canada as the Online News Act but Facebook decided to boycott Canadian news.
Rafiq believes that regardless of adopting a similar approach by Australia and Canada, or coming up with their own framework suitable to the Malaysia context, he said that the core idea was to get Google and Meta to agree on a deal with the media organisations.
This, he said, could be done with individual media agencies, or through a blanketed legislation.
"Of course the companies that spend a larger amount in journalism would get a lion's share of it but it is not stopping any smaller agencies from funding larger journalism work for their companies.
"This (initiative) should not be a private boys club only kind of move, any form of journalism should be funded.
"The intention is to seek equitable funding for creation of news content. The established committees are on the same page," he added.
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