By Shawal Ras
GOMBAK 4 September 2014: The abuse of the media today is apparent, hence the requirement for regulations no longer falls on censorship alone, but the issues surrounding the media should be further examined in the larger context of copyrights, public preservation, personal rights, content regulations, as well as regulations for business, and online media security to be regulated through laws enactment, a public lecture was told.
Prof. Dr. Venkat Iyer, in his public lecture delivered at the Ahmad Ibrahim Kulliyyah of Laws (AIKOL), International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM), highlighted the fact that “it  is widely agreed that the mass media play an important role in all societies”.
He said the media, in their enthusiasm to carry out their task, could possibly infringe on cultural harmony, business practice and public decency as well as invade on the privacy of individuals. More so with the advance of technology where information travels so fast and the tendency to create distortions and manipulation of facts could spread easily through the social media which have no control whatsoever. Besides, the sources of information have credibility problems too.
The advent of new technology  has affected the way the media operated. It also gave rise to the new media such as blogs, and the development of citizen journalism where “any one can be a journalist nowadays”.
Therefore, he said, it is necessary for the media to be regulated and must be made to be responsible for their reporting. Regulations may be in the form of legal statutes or sanctions, voluntary or self-regulations (soft laws, codes of conduct) and a hybrid of legal and voluntary regulations like the Media or Press Council.
The lecture, held at AIKOL’s Conference Hall, was titled “Regulating the Media in the 21st Century: Is It Necessary? Is It Possible?”
Prof. Dr. Venkat Iyer is a legal academic attached to the University of Ulster, United Kingdom. He is also a barrister and Law Commissioner for Northern Ireland. He specialises in media law and has served as advisor to various governments, media groups and non-governmental organisations.
The public lecture was attended by the Dean of AIKOL, Prof. Dr. Hunud Abia Kadouf, the Dean of Kulliyyah of Islamic Revealed Knowledge and Human Sciences (KIRKHS), Prof. Dr. Ibrahim Mohamed Zein, as well as staffs and academicians from various departments of the university.