Journalists' associations should play greater role in training media practitioners - Annuar

KUALA LUMPUR: Journalism institutions including journalists' associations need to play a greater role in enabling the community of media practitioners to receive training and guidance on the profession, says Communications and Multimedia Minister Tan Sri Annuar Musa.

He said this was because a journalist's career could not depend on formal studies from institutions of higher learning alone.

"If journalists want to become professional, then the journalist bodies themselves must conduct training and also set guidelines to become an entity that is considered professional," he said during the 'Ruang Bicara' programme on Bernama TV entitled 'HAWANA 2022: Kewartawanan Aspirasi Keluarga Malaysia'.

In the programme, Annuar also advised journalists' associations to unite, focus and build the journalism profession in the right way.

"If the journalists' associations remain divided, or still open up many associations that only take care of the welfare of their members without looking at the scope of the journalism profession...then we will be fragmented and weak and may quarrel, and in the end, it takes us nowhere," he said.

Meanwhile, he said it was very important for journalists' associations in the country to hold more training programmes to strengthen the credibility of media practitioners.

"I want to see these journalists' associations get together, don't have too many branches. If there are already various (associations) it doesn't matter, the important thing is to sit together and create a platform for all to share the same vision," he told Bernama after the programme.

Annuar added that the role of the associations in providing training was among the best measures to improve the professionalism of journalists, so that incidents including writing news not based on facts did not occur.

HAWANA 2022, which will take place in Melaka this Sunday, is being organised to recognise the role of Malaysian journalists and media practitioners, besides serving as a platform for media practitioners to share opinions and enhance the development and growth of the media industry in Malaysia.

The Malaysian National News Agency (Bernama) and Malaysian-Indonesian Journalists' Association (ISWAMI) will be the prime movers of the event with the support of the Ministry of Communications and Multimedia (K-KOMM).

-- BERNAMA