Try again, Zaid tells media - The Star

VIDEO: Zaid: Media should unite for reforms

KUALA LUMPUR: Media practitioners should unite and put forward again their proposals for reforms and more press freedom, said Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Zaid Ibrahim.

Speaking at the National Press Club, the de facto law minister said just because the press had engaged the Government 10 years ago to push for media freedom, “it doesn’t mean you must stop there.”

“Try again. After all it’s part of the changing process,” he told a gathering of journalists, writers, bloggers and civil society yesterday.

Zaid was heckled during his speech and the question-and-answer session.

He said it was easy to blame the state of the media in the country on “repressive laws” but it was important for the press to be honest and look at itself and take responsibility.

“If you don’t want the Government to regulate, then you have to offer a solution. You have to have a better plan. You can’t just say ‘repeal, repeal, repeal’ without a mechanism in place.

“You want to change the law, by all means, make a representation. If you say it’s not your business, then whose business is it?” he said.

[More at http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/6/2/nation/21425577&sec=nation]