The media and media practitioners must remain unbending in upholding neutrality and objectivity in executing their news reporting missions.

The theme for this year’s National Journalists Day on May 29 Sunday was “People’s Voice, National Aspiration”.

News media and journalists constitute a very important component in modern nation-building, and have contributed significantly to our society’s development.

His Majesty Yang di-Pertuan Agong has described media practitioners as unsung heroes, insisting that their role is crucial in the country’s development and in fostering greater unity among our multiracial population.

For so many decades the journey of conventional media organizations and media practitioners has not been easy, as they have to confront a fair share of obstacles. The rise of alternative and social media has posed further challenges to them.

Journalists today need to adapt to breakneck changes of the new era as they harness the latest information technology to convey their messages to the masses more effectively. And such a process invariably involves the all-important media transformation which while is full of challenges is nonetheless an inevitable and irreversible trend that all media organizations and practitioners must learn to adapt.

The biggest challenge lies not with changes in the nature of the job, but more with the economic impact befalling them.

With enormous volumes of news contents being created on their respective platforms, both Google and Facebook have seized the lion’s share of online advertisement revenue, posing tremendous economic impact on revenue generation of conventional media.

The news contents created with so much hard work and sweat by media organizations must not be exploited as free lunches for Google and Facebook.

Certain countries, including Australia, have already jumped into action by enacting laws to require Google, Facebook and other platforms to pay media organizations for the contents they use.

Google has recently signed an agreement to pay some 300 publishers in Germany, France and four other EU countries for using their news.

The Malaysian government should also adopt a similar stand by enacting relevant laws to demand that Google, Facebook and other online platforms pay local media organizations for using their contents. This is to ensure that local media companies are aptly retributed for their content authoring efforts, while creating a healthier and fairer media environment so that local media organizations can continue to play their parts in creating high quality contents.

Meanwhile, the government should also loosen its grips on the media industry, abolishing various laws that restrict press freedom so that news media can discharge their duties as the Fourth Estate more effectively.

In officiating the National Journalists Day on Sunday, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said the media must remain free to operate without any interference from other parties to ensure freedom of expression in the country.

Indeed, the media must be allowed to operate without any interference, and we hope the government will take a few more steps forward to ensure freedom of expression, allowing media practitioners to justly and independently perform their journalistic obligations without fear or favor.

Conventional media continues to play a pivotal role in the Internet age. There has been a multitude of misinformation in the cyberspace in recent years, but a responsible media organization will keep verifying and clarifying a piece of information in a bid to deliver the truthful news to the public, not fabricated rumors, lest our society suffers tremendous damage as a consequence of omnipresent fake news.

Despite the changes of the times, the media’s role has the least diminished, as journalists through the ages adhere to the principle of serving the public conscientiously and delivering nothing but the truth.

In the face of mounting challenges in our ever changing world, the media and media practitioners must remain unbending in upholding neutrality and objectivity in executing their news reporting missions, as we make steady progress forward alongside the rest of the community.