This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on May 31, 2018

PUTRAJAYA: Bernama has been directed to resume Tamil and Mandarin news broadcasts over Bernama News Channel (BNC), Communications and Multimedia Minister Gobind Singh Deo says.

The national news agency has been told to report to Gobind on how soon it could begin broadcasts in the two languages, he said yesterday.

“I have directed Bernama to resume their Chinese and Tamil sectors. I have asked, if possible, for this to start in two weeks; maybe it is a bit too fast. Nevertheless, I have spoken to representatives from Bernama and asked them to give me a report on how best and how fast this can be done.

“Hopefully, by end of this week, I will have a report. What I want to see is for those news sectors to be up and running again as soon as possible,” Gobind said.

On Monday, Gobind raised the matter during his maiden visit to Bernama headquarters, and said he hopes the news agency would consider resuming news broadcasts in the two languages, terminated several years ago.

Bernama chief executive officer Datuk Zulkefli Salleh, in 2015, said the Tamil and Mandarin news services were terminated to reduce operating costs of the television channel.

Gobind also said he will propose to the cabinet the formation of a media council in the next two weeks.

“We have stated that we want to establish a media council. We are in the process of setting up its structure. I have met with the heads of department, and we want to get participation from all stakeholders. We want it to be as broad as possible,” he said.

“The actual structure — who will be part of it and so forth — has not been decided. This is something that I proposed to put up to the cabinet in two weeks, if I can.”