KUALA LUMPUR: Laws requiring tech giants to pay local media for online news content should be implemented immediately to ensure the sustainability of the country’s media industry.
National journalism Laureate Tan Sri Johan Jaafar said Malaysia could take a cue from the implementation of similar laws abroad such as in Australia and Canada requiring companies like Meta and Alphabet Inc, to pay local media agencies for every link and search material and news content used on its platform.
In Australia, the law is known as the Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code while in Canada, it is known as Online News Act.
“This has to be done because it’s a question of sustainability of media companies and the way how it is done has been shown by Australia. It’s not an easy thing to do…The tech giants will do anything to make sure that (the law) doesn’t happen.
“We need to think about news sharing, but tech giants must pay for the news they carry. It is my hope that this can happen soon,” he told reporters after attending the National Media Forum 2023 themed ‘Media Sustainability: The Way Forward for Malaysia in the Digital Era’ organised by the Malaysian Press Institute (MPI) here today.
Johan also suggested that a journalism chair be established in major universities in the country to appreciate the service of journalists and the field of journalism as well as provide professional guidance to individuals who wish to enter the field.
One of the panelists, Initiator of Publishers’ Rights Indonesia Agus Sudibyo said compensations provided by tech giant platforms to publishers should be negotiable to allow meaningful content sharing which then makes revenue sharing possible.
“Maintaining the sustainability of the media as an economic institution is as important as maintaining the media as a journalism agency, so these two must be in tandem,” he said.
Meanwhile, publisher and editor of Australian Property Journal Nelson Yap and Utusan TV editor-in-chief Datuk Zulkefli Hamzah both opined that media company owners must keep abreast with the latest technological developments, which among others, is a preparatory step to face incoming challenges to the world of journalism, including artificial intelligence (AI).-Bernama
