Ministry claims it’s in the dark over allegation to skip GSP events
KUCHING: The Federal Communications and Multimedia Ministry is to ask Radio Televisyen Malaysia (RTM) Sarawak to explain an allegation that it is prohibited from providing coverage of events of the Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) state government.
The ministry’s deputy secretary-general (policy), Shakib Ahmad Shakir, said the ministry had no knowledge of this.
“As for the ministry, we are not aware of this issue. We will specifically ask RTM Sarawak to come out with an explanation on this issue,” he told reporters after launching a briefing on cybercrime prevention and anti-human trafficking at the P. Ramlee Auditorium, RTM Kuching yesterday.
Communications and Multimedia Minister Gobind Singh Deo reiterated recently that the ministry had not issued any directive or guideline to RTM on providing coverage in opposition-held states.
The matter of coverage came up again yesterday when Sarawak Tourism, Culture, Arts, Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah criticised RTM for not covering the press conference announcing the 117th Malaysian Amateur Open Golf Championships scheduled to be held from June 18 to 23.
He had said that it is understandable if RTM had not covered a press conference on GPS politics but this was about a golf tournament.
On telecommunications-related crimes Shakib said the ministry was working closely with its strategic partners to carry out cyber crime campaign this year with two hashtags, #ScamAlert and #JanganTerpedaya to serve as a reminder to the public.
For example, he said, throughout 2018, a total of 1,360 cases involving human trafficking victims were reported, based on the record from the Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants Council (Mapo).
“The vast majority of cases involve sexual exploitation and forced labour,” he said.
However, he said, there was a decline in the number of cases of human trafficking, from 429 cases in 2017 to 303 cases in 2018.
Likewise, in terms of total number of arrests was also dropped, from 676 cases in 2017 to 395 cases in 2018.
However, he said, cases in this category remained high, involving 5,940 people.
He said in the last few weeks, 47 Malaysians were detained in Cambodia with 40 of them were from Sarawak who were duped by jobs syndicate.
It was then followed by eight job seekers in the logging sector from the state who were stranded in Liberia after the employer disappeared, he said.
Shakib said all these incidents had opened the eyes of various people the seriousness of the human trafficking crimes. – Bernama
