Regulating online news portals in the era of IR 4.0 – should Malaysia consider self-regulation?

• Main Authors: Nazli, Ismail@Nawang, Abdul Majid Tahir, Mohamed, Aminuddin, Mustaffa
• Format: Conference or Workshop Item
• Language: English; English
• Published: 2020
• Subjects: HD28 Management. Industrial Management; T Technology (General)
• Online Access: http://eprints.unisza.edu.my/1842/1/FH03-FUHA-20-41688.pdf; http://eprints.unisza.edu.my/1842/2/FH03-FUHA-20-41689.pdf; http://eprints.unisza.edu.my/1842/
• Institution: Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin

The Fourth Industrial Revolution (IR 4.0), which is attributed by the fusion of the physical, digital and biological world, has impacted all activities and industries around the globe. The media industry is no exception and has to embrace the new revolution regardless of whether they are in printed or digital forms. Online news portals are currently at the forefront compared to the print media as they have been established in the electronic environment prior to the arrival of I.R 4.0. Apart from that, they are at present not subject to the statutory constraints that mandate their operators to possess either the publication permit under the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984 or any licence (individual or class) under the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998. Thus, the study will use qualitative research by analysing the existing statutory regulations governing the print media and the new converging communications and multimedia as well as secondary sources in order to determine why the present legal mechanisms do not apply to online news portals. Further, it will scrutinise the self-regulatory regime that has been adopted by the Communications and Multimedia Content Forum and the potential of applying self-regulation to govern online news portals, and perhaps the print media as well. To sum up, it is submitted that the self-regulatory style could be ideally used to fill the void in governing online news portals and other online publications in the country. The same regulatory regime could also be extended to the traditional media with the establishment of the proposed media council that adopts the same self-regulatory style to govern all media industry in Malaysia.