Interactive channels warned not to air programmes with suggestive sexual underlying messages

KUCHING: Television stations risk having their licences cancelled if their interactive channels go overboard with suggestive sexual underlying messages.

HARI RAYA GET-TOGETHER: Fadillah speaks to guests at his Raya open house yesterday.— Photo by Johnathan Bullet

Deputy Minister of Science Technology and Innovation Fadillah Yusof said these stations should know what they were broadcasting and if these programmes abided by the broadcasting regulation.

“The stations do their own filtration so they should know what they are airing. But if they go against the law, their licence is at risk (of getting terminated) by the Malaysia Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC),” he told reporters when met at his Hari Raya Aidilfitri open house at his residence here yesterday.

Fadillah said that MCMC was the enforcement body that would monitor what was being aired while his ministry through its own agency, Cyber Security, would monitor activities in the cyber world.

In fact, he said his ministry had already signed with Multimedia Development Corporation the Bill of Guarantees calling for no filtration on any publication on cyberspace and also IT products, which was in line with conditions internationally.

Nonetheless, he said even this was still required to conform to the law and police could take action against those who broke it.

“So there isn’t such a thing as complete freedom. You are still subjected to the current laws we are having like the Penal Code and Civil Rights. For example, one can be charged under the civil law if one were to commit slander,” he added.

Fadillah was commenting on a recent investigative report by a national Malay daily that certain interactive channels were airing messages with sexual connotations.

The report said that all viewers needed to do was register easily on these ‘friend finder’ programmes and text away.

Viewers would be given two choices on whether to interact with other viewers in private or have their messages openly viewed on air.

However, lately certain groups of viewers seemed to rave things up by inviting others to go on a sexual escapades with them and these suggestive ‘invites’ got aired.

The writer from this paper then experimented by also putting out an invitation and as soon as the message got aired, received some 20 SMSes from other viewers responding to the invite.

The writer even probed further to contact at least three of these respondents who clearly wanted to indulge in some sex talks.