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ASIA& PACIFIC: MALAYSIA

Chats Too Saucy and Naughty for Malaysian TV
Author: Patrick Mirandah, Patrick Mirandah & Co.

Advertisements have taken a different approach to appearing in our TV screens as they now appear via SMS (short message system) displayed as credits popping up beside a smaller screen where the actual program is broadcasted. A local daily reveals the problems with allowing the continuance of SMS popping up on our TV screens. One of it is that it is not only a cheap method to display offers in our living rooms, it is a loophole for advertisements, which otherwise would not be permitted by the Advertising Code of Content.

As it was recently reported, the offers that have cropped up include offering services of women, friendship for a fee, and subscription for sex tips. These advertisements should be treated just like any other form of announcements or notices displayed on TV and should obtain the Censorship Board’s approval. By right, nothing can be inserted after a film has been censored. So these SMS messages flashing on our TV screens should not even be there.

S. 211 of the Communications and Multimedia Act prohibits Content that is indecent, obscene, false, menacing, or offensive in character with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass any person. This requirement is to ensure that material disseminated does not include anything which offends good taste, decency or offensive to the public’s feeling. These SMS flashes are indeed indecent content as they offer services described by the Act as indecent and get away with it.

What actually sparked the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) to take extra precautionary measures was that parents started to lodge numerous complaints to the National Consumer Complaints Centre, as these uncensored content even appeared on children’s channels. These complaints have put immense pressure on the MCMC as the local daily reported that immediate action against some television stations already been implemented on some television stations to curb the problem of uncensored content appearing on television.