The bill on the promotion of media ethics and professional standards is set to be read by a joint session of parliament on Tuesday. Sponsored by the government's Public Relations Department (PRD), the legislation seeks to create a professional council for media practitioners, which would be funded by the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission's (NBTC) media development fund.
The bill is a response to the increasing number of complaints about unethical reporting by media outlets, fake news and biased reporting, which are polarising society along socio-political lines. It assumes that these problems were caused by the lack of an overarching council which sets out and oversees the ethical and professional standards of media practitioners.
