Regulating Online Broadcast Media against Offensive Materials in Malaysia

Md  Zahidul Islam; Khairil Azmin Bin Mokhtar; Nor Hafizah Bt Mohd Badrol Afandi; Rabeya Anzum

doi:10.17485/IJST/v14i15.595

Article

Regulating Online Broadcast Media against Offensive Materials in Malaysia

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Indian Journal of Science and Technology

DOI: 10.17485/IJST/v14i15.595

Year: 2021, Volume: 14, Issue: 15, Pages: 1233-1238

Original Article

Regulating Online Broadcast Media against Offensive Materials in Malaysia

Md. Zahidul Islam^1*, Khairil Azmin Bin Mokhtar¹, Nor Hafizah Bt Mohd Badrol Afandi¹, Rabeya Anzum²

¹Civil Law Department, Ahmad Ibrahim Kulliyyah of Laws (AIKOL), International Islamic
University Malaysia, PO Box 10, 50728 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
²Rabeya Anzum, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Kulliyyah (Faculty) of
Engineering, International Islamic University Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. P.O.Box 10
50728, Kuala Lumpur

*Corresponding Author
Email: [email protected]

Received Date:09 April 2021, Accepted Date:29 April 2021, Published Date:03 May 2021

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

Nowadays, online broadcasting services such as, Hotstar, Hulu, Netflix, Iflix Pandora, Amazon Prime Video etc are very popular in Malaysia for original video contents. Due to the rapid growth of online broadcasting services in Malaysia, it is necessary to examine the legal and regulatory framework governing the contents of online broadcasting services. Objectives: The basic objective of this study is to scrutinize the efficacy and applicability of the Communications and Multimedia Act (1998) and other relevant laws of Malaysia in regulating online broadcasting services with special concentration on offensive materials and hate speeches. It also tries to identify the major weaknesses of the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), the main regulatory body in dealing with this specific matter. Methods: Legal and doctrinal research methodology is applied in this study followed by an analytical approach. Relevant data are collected after analyzing both the primary and secondary legal sources. Finding: Findings of the study reveals that the contents of online broadcasting services do not frequently violate the relevant laws and regulations of Malaysia and sometimes their agreement with consumers are made in such a way as to avoid legal responsibility for the contents provided. Hence, it is recommended that the online broadcasting services and its contents should be made subject to a special legal framework by enacting new laws and introducing a special regulatory body.

Keywords: Regulating; Offensive materials; hate speech; online broadcasting; overthetop (OTT)

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Copyright

© 2021 Islam et al.This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Published By Indian Society for Education and Environment (iSee)