Players in the advertising world will do more to deepen self-regulation in the industry as it is the way forward to maintain the credibility of stakeholders as well as to protect the rights of consumers.
Astro Radio CEO Dr Jake Abdullah said self-regulation was not a hindrance to creativity but it actually promoted the value for industry players to be more credible and responsible with regard to the creation of advertisement.
“I think the self-regulation in the advertising industry in Malaysia is pretty solid in terms of the code of conduct and implementation.
“Our copywriters are very well aware of the sensitivity of the public as well as the commercial needs of advertisers.
“We are pretty alright. But, we must be aware commercial now is on the convergence with editorial and they are both governed by different code of conduct.
“In this case, the best way to go to emulate may be foreign counterpart that has managed to do right- the advertising industry in Indonesia for example,” he said in a forum entitled ‘Keeping It Legit! Self Regulation In Malaysian Advertising’ organised by the Malaysian Advertising Association (MAA) recently.
In the forum, representatives from media and creative agencies, advertisers as well as advisory body and government agency deliberated on the subject, ‘Is self regulation a hindrance or necessity?’.
Meanwhile, MNPA chairman and chief executive officer of NSTP Group Datuk Mohd Azlan Abdullah says every stakeholder must take into account the responsibility in the creation of an advertisement as media practitioners.
“But, more often than not, we got to be blamed if anything goes wrong where ideally the responsibility should be collective. On our side, we try our best to vet through every advertisement and we have not less than ten government agencies guidelines to adhere to.
“Thus, in my opinion, the advertising industry is quite well governed and we are all under these watchful eyes,” he says.
Moderator and organising chairman of the forum, BABA Products (M) Sdn Bhd head of A&P Claudian Navin Stanislaus raises the issue of ‘de-regulation’ where some lobbyists are promoting the notion to have a set of laws to fully govern the advertising industry.
Responding to this, Nestle communication director and MAA special adviser Khoo Khar Khoon says there would a group of people out there who would complain.
“But, we must look into the eligibility of their complaints whether it is substantial enough for us to make changes or not. If they are minorities, we must be aware that we cannot please everybody,” he says.
As of now, the advertising industry is governed by code of conducts set by Advertising Standards Advisory Malaysia (ASA) and the Commucation & Multimedia Content Forum Malaysia (CMCF).
The speakers from ASA and CMCF presented a detailed explanation of their codes and operational scope at the forum as well.
Generally, the forum came to a conclusion that the ethics of self regulation were in place and was generally well observed by all players in the industry.
*Source from The Star – 30th January 2016
