No need to ban scandalous artistes from local channels, says Fahmi

PUTRAJAYA, April 25 — The government has no plan to ban broadcast artists who face or cause controversies through their personal lives, said Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil.

He also said such measures were increasingly ineffective in the modern era.

“I’ve spoken to the director-general of broadcast (Datuk Suhaidi Sulaiman), the reality now is different from the 80’s when there were only a few channels; if it was shut down just like that, they have no more access to these channels.

“Today it’s way different, artists have their own (social media) account whereby they can create their own content, and there are so many other channels, we cannot blanket ban because it involves private (entities) and other things,” Fahmi said when met by reporters at a joint Hari Raya open house by his ministry and the Housing and Local Government Ministry here.

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He was responding to reporters’ questions on potentially barring performers Aliff Aziz and Ruhainies from television channels after their personal controversies became public knowledge.

Instead, Fahmi said rehabilitation was a better option.

“We see that rehabilitation is better and we hope that the artistes will admit fault and work on improving themselves.

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“This a method that we are considering now, however I will leave this to the director-general of broadcast to execute it,” he said.