LPF has no objection for TV stations to do own censorship

KUALA LUMPUR - The Malaysian Film Censorship Board (LPF) has no objection to television stations doing their own censorship of the content of films or dramas that will be broadcast on their respective platforms.

LPF chairman Datuk Mohd Dusuki Ya’acob said this is because the television stations will also use the same guidelines and act as LPF.

"...it’s just that when television stations do their own censorship, they need to ensure that it is done by the same individual.

"if there is a turnover, we (LPF) fear that there will be an issue of understanding about the censorship. That’s what we’re worried about, in other respects we actually support them doing their own censorship,” he said when appearing as a guest on Bernama TV’s ‘Apa Khabar Malaysia’ programme today.

Mohd Dusuki said based on the existing LPF Guidelines and the Film Censorship Act 2002, there are four aspects of film censorship, namely security and public order; religion; socio-culture, and decorum and morality.

"For the time being, we already have three television stations that have been given permission to censor movies, namely Astro, Radio Television Malaysia (RTM) and Media Prima.

"Apart from that, permission for Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM), TV Sarawak (TVS) and Awesome TV is in the pipeline because they have also applied to do their own censorship,” he said.

In the meantime, Mohd Dusuki concurred that the content of material published by local industry players needs to be continuously monitored by all parties including the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC).

This is in response to the existence of a film that has elements of religious pluralism and goes against the Islamic creed which was broadcast on a digital platform recently, causing displeasure among the people. - BERNAMA