M’sia, Thailand should renew bilateral agreements to deepen cooperation, says Annuar Musa

BANGKOK: Tan Sri Annuar Musa urged Malaysia and Thailand to renew bilateral agreements to deepen cooperation in the field of telecommunications, broadcasting and creative industries.

“I hope an agreement would be signed before the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) meeting (in November) to boost bilateral cooperation,” the Communications and Multimedia Minister told Bernama Tuesday (June 21).

Annuar, who was been on a working visit to Bangkok since last Friday (June 17), said though it was a brief visit, he was satisfied with the outcome.

“I’am happy that we have learned a lot of things during the visit, including exploring ties at various levels,” said Annuar, who flew back to Malaysia on Tuesday.

On Monday (June 20), he visited the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) and National Broadcasting Services of Thailand (NBT) to learn about Thailand’s experience in combating fake news.

Also present was Interim chairman of the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) Tan Sri Mohamad Salim Fateh Din.

Annuar also met the Chairman of NBTC Dr Sarana Boonbaichaiyapruck and Director-General of Public Relations Department (PRD) Lt Gen Sansern Kaewkamnerd where they discussed various issues and efforts in tackling fake news.

The NBTC is an independent state broadcasting and telecommunications regulator. Its responsibilities including regulate all broadcasting and telecommunication services in the country through formulating a master plan on broadcasting and telecommunications activities and setting criteria and categories of broadcasting and telecommunication services and granting licenses to the broadcasting and telecommunication operators.

NBT, the broadcasting arm of the PRD that operates comprehensive media services comprising radio, television networks.

Meanwhile, Annuar said media literacy could help Malaysia stay ahead in the fight against fake news.

He said media literacy would develop stronger ‘antibody’ or resistance among the community, especially among students in a bid to curb unverified news on social media platforms.

“Fake news is just like a virus… difficult to do away. The best possible method is to build antibodies to fight the virus.

“So, for the government, we have to make sure the people have the capacity to detect misinformation and at the same time encourage the people to disseminate the right information.

“We need to educate the people and community as well as collaborate with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to curb fake news,” he said.

He added that the fight against misinformation was not the sole responsible of the government or MCMC.

“We should not just rely on legal framework too. There are other ways and means,” he said.

Annuar said Thailand has been very active in combating disinformation including providing training, organising programmes and raising awareness as well as conducting survey and research.

“There are interesting things implemented in Thailand that we have yet to do. Therefore, I have requested MCMC to follow up,” he said. – Bernama