KULAI: Media practitioners are advised to be more careful in writing their reports and avoid using sentences or headlines that could create stereotypes against someone.
Deputy Communications Minister Teo Nie Ching said media practitioners play a significant role in shaping public perception, thus helping to break down stereotypes.
“I feel today that stereotypes are a big issue, not just how we call someone but also involving jobs, for example, nurses and that only women are suitable or that women cannot become engineers, these are not right,” she said in a press conference after the mock cheque presentation ceremony at the Surau Nurul Haq in Kampung Sungai Sayong 1 here today.
This is all part of the stereotyping that we need to break, so that we educate the younger generation (one day) when they too can achieve something (without thinking about stereotypes).
Teo said this when asked to comment on the headline of an online newspaper report regarding a national badminton player.
Yesterday, Teo also shared a screenshot of the relevant headline in a Facebook post and left a message for the athlete not to be affected by stereotypes based on the headline.
Meanwhile, regarding online fraud cases, Teo, who is also the Kulai Member of Parliament, said that as of the beginning of this year until Aug 31, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) had taken down a total of 58,659 social media posts containing fraudulent elements.
She said the figure was obtained from data gathered from various agencies, including the Royal Malaysia Police, Domestic Trade and the Cost of Living Ministry and Ministry of Health.
“For every fraudulent post received, we ask the relevant platform to take action (remove it) as quickly as possible,“ she said.
Therefore, she also advised the public to report any fraud they experience to the relevant agencies to ensure further action can be taken promptly. - Bernama
