BUTTERWORTH: Newly appointed Malaysian Media Council (MMC) chairman Tan Sri Nallini Pathmanathan (pic) believes her decades of experience in the judiciary will help the council build credibility, safeguard its independence and earn public trust.
Addressing questions over why a former judge was chosen to lead a self-regulatory media body, Nallini said the council’s effectiveness would depend not on authority, but on its ability to command confidence through fairness and independence.
“I am not a journalist. I have never run a newsroom, closed a front page or worked to a news desk deadline,” she said at the Media Dialogue Session with Communications Minister Datuk Fahmi Fadzil here, today.
However, the former Federal Court judge said her experience on the Bench had equipped her with the skills needed to safeguard the council’s independence, ensure fair processes and uphold public confidence in its decisions.
“The principal thing I can bring to this table is fairness between parties to whom one owes no allegiance, decided on the evidence and explained openly with reasons,” she said.
Nallini said the Malaysian Media Council Act itself specifically requires its chairperson to be independent of politics, the civil service and the legislature, reflecting the need for a neutral figure capable of earning the trust of all stakeholders.
She added that while editors and journalists remained the experts in reporting and newsroom operations, the council’s role was to strengthen the ecosystem through credible standards, effective complaints mechanisms and fair dispute resolution.
Looking ahead, Nallini said one of her key priorities for the council is ensuring that the body’s foundational structures are built on principles of fairness and accountability.
“My concern is the quality and fairness of our own processes: our code, our complaints mechanism, the manner in which we reach and explain our decisions. These early months are, in effect, the constitution-writing phase of this institution.
If we get the foundations right - natural justice, proportion, reasons that can be read and tested - the Council's standing will follow.
“My second concern is the principle that should run through all of it. A free media must also be a responsible one and a responsible media must, in turn, be protected from pressure, harassment, misuse of its name and manipulation. Freedom and responsibility are not opposites here. They are two halves of the same trust,” she added.
In line with these concerns, Nallini said the council had identified three immediate priorities: establishing a complaints and adjudication framework, expanding membership across the industry, and addressing emerging challenges such as fabricated content and the misuse of artificial intelligence (AI).
“This Council can be of use to government, to the industry, and to the public alike only for as long as it is owned by none of them.
“Independence of this kind is not declared in a speech; it is shown, decision by decision, in whom we prove willing to disagree with. That is the standard the Council intends us to be held to,” she said.
At the same time, Nallini stressed that the council’s complaints mechanism must never become a tool for silencing journalists, as strong reporting that challenges those in power and asks difficult questions is not a problem to fix but a key role of a free press.
“The Council will uphold standards, but it will be vigilant in ensuring that the upholding of standards is not turned into a means of discouraging the very journalism a democracy most needs,” she said.
Present at the dialogue session, held in conjunction with the National Journalists’ Day (HAWANA) 2026 celebration, were Communications Ministry secretary-general Datuk Abdul Halim Hamzah and deputy secretary-general (Strategic Communications and Creative Industry) Datuk Bahria Mohd Tamil.
Also present were Malaysian National News Agency (Bernama) Chairman Datuk Seri Wong Chun Wai, Bernama Chief Executive Officer and HAWANA 2026 Working Committee Chair Datin Paduka Nur-ul Afida Kamaludin, Bernama Editor-in-Chief Arul Rajoo Durar Raj, as well as senior management from local media organisations.
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