Malaysia transport minister's press sec apologises for outburst

This article is more than 12 months old

Feb 25, 2019 06:00 am

PETALING JAYA The press secretary of Malaysia's Transport Minister Anthony Loke has apologised for his public outburst against Radio Television Malaysia (RTM) last week.

Mr Lim Swee Kuan had accused RTM of "sabotaging" the Pakatan Harapan federal government after Mr Loke's speech at a 2019 Chinese New Year Open House celebration event in Seremban was not broadcast on Feb 17, and said that "heads must roll".

"Knowing now that RTM was merely following its SOP in showing only the prime minister's speech during the 'live' telecast of the CNY celebration in Seremban, I wish to apologise for my Facebook post dated February 17, 2019.

"I support media independence and media freedom and would love that one day RTM can be truly transformed into a high quality, professional public broadcaster," Mr Lim said in his Facebook post yesterday.

Communications and Multimedia Minister Gobind Singh Deo said that based on the full report provided by RTM, he found that the broadcaster had complied with its existing SOP and cleared the state-owned RTM of any wrongdoing.

Mr Lim also said he fully supports Mr Gobind's proposal for a media council, saying it is "the right way to go to redefine the important role of state-owned media". - THE STAR