Dissemination of false news must be stopped immediately

"If not addressed immediately, the news will not only harm individuals but also have an effect on a nation," she said after the inaugural meeting of the Malaysia-Singapore Joint Committee on Information and Communications Co-operation, here.

Dr Sharifah Zarah co-chaired the meeting with the permanent secretary of the Singapore Ministry of Communications and Information, Gabriel Lim. Also attending the meeting was Malaysian National News Agency (Bernama) general manager Datuk Zulkefli Salleh.

Dr Sharifah Zarah said four topics, namely false news, the digital economy, analogue switch and international mobile roaming, were discussed at the meeting.

She said the speed of technology made the effort to check the dissemination of false news "a little difficult" and "it is not easy to stop the dissemination just like that".

One measure, she said, was to educate the people to differentiate between false news and truthful news.

She also said that the Malaysian government had launched the SEBENARNYA.MY portal that informed about the truthfulness of news that went viral on social media.

Describing the meeting as fruitful, Dr Sharifah Zarah said the two sides were able to share experiences and ideas to address the issue of dissemination of false news.

Malaysia and Singapore signed a memorandum of understanding last year to enhance co-operation in television and film productions, info-communications media development, exchange of news, government communications and digital technology.

In conjunction with the meeting, Singapore will host the ‘Muzik Ekstravaganza’ (Muzika) tomorrow night.

Malaysian Minister of Communications and Multimedia Datuk Seri Dr Salleh Said Keruak and Singapore Minister of Communications and Information Dr Yaacob Ibrahim will be the guests of honour at the annual variety co-production.

Muzika, which has entered its 11th year, is jointly produced by Malaysia’s Radio Television Malaysia (RTM) and Singapore’s Mediacorp.