RTM Does Not Need To Compete With Other Stations – MP

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 5 (Bernama) — Radio Televisyen Malaysia (RTM) as a government agency does not need to compete with private television stations, and it should instead give priority to government policies and programmes, a Member of Parliament said Tuesday.

Datuk Raja Ahmad Zainuddin Raja Omar (BN-Larut) said while RTM needed to raise the quality of its programmes, it did not have to compete as its priority should be the government’s agenda and not for commercial value.

“RTM does not need to compete with other stations in the rating… to see who is supporting who.

“More importantly, RTM must be firm and deliver (the message) the RTM way,” he said when debating the Supply Bill 2007 at the Dewan Rakyat here.

Referring to last week’s live telecast of the wedding of pop diva Siti Nurhaliza Tarudin and businessman Datuk Khalid Mohamed Jiwa over TV3 and the Mawi-Ina show on RTM and Astro at the same time, Raja Ahmad said it had digressed from its original objectives and should not have taken place.

Raja Ahmad Zainuddin proposed that if RTM wanted to compete for commercial programmes, it should add a special channel for that purpose.

Earlier, Bernard Maraat (BN-Pensiangan) said RTM should be competitive to attract viewers, citing foreign television stations NHK and BBC as examples, and to raise the quality of its programme to be on par with other stations’.

Datuk Ronald Kiandee (BN-Beluran) said RTM should be prepared to get a slightly lower rating by showing programmes on government policies compared to commercially-oriented ones.

Datuk Isma Sabri Yaakob (BN-Bera) said RTM should be brave and need not air programmes just for the sake of viewers’ tastes and preferences.

“RTM must be bold enough to change people’s mindsets and become an informative television network.

“It can become famous as a news channel like CNN. The thing is it should be bold,” said Isma.

Raja Ahmad Zainudin also proposed that Bernama TV be turned into a news channel called ‘Malaysian News Channel’ (MNC).

“In fact, I am proposing that Bernama TV acquire any channel on Astro to operate a 24-hour news channel for a start.

“Maybe, by paying an annual fee to Astro, the MNC can be operational immediately,” he said.

In this context, Raja Ahmad Zainuddin said Bernama should be more efficient in strengthening its human capital or its experienced staff.

“Bernama needs to develop a pool of skilled and knowledgeable workforce, but I am afraid that many staff especially experienced personnel at Bernama TV had quit their jobs since early this year.

“Many among them are complaining of being overloaded with work or are uncomfortable at their workplace while many Bernama staff hired on a commercial scheme are not being upgraded,” he said.

Raja Ahmad Zainudin cited an example of Bernama staff with more than eight years experience under the commercial scale, were still in Grade D while new entrants with less experience, were offered Grade C or Grade B.

“This is a serious matter and we hope it will be given due attention,” he said.

– BERNAMA