PARENTS AND TEACHERS PLAY ROLE FOREIGN FILM VIEWING

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 10 (Bernama) -- The Malaysian government encourages parents
and teachers to play a role in monitoring children so that they are not too
influenced by foreign films so as to adversely affect their Eastern
values.

Deputy Minister for Energy, Water and Communications, Joseph Salang
Gandum said it was difficult for the government to prevent people being
influenced by foreign films as there was much new technology for the
purpose.

"We ourselves are exposed to many screenings from government or private
stations but we can choose what to watch," he said in reply to a supplementary
question by Datuk Shamsul Anuar Nasarah, a MP in the Lower Houser of Parliament
Wednesday.

Shamsul Anuar wanted to know if the government had made any study on the
bad
effects on building human resources of people watching foreign films.

Joseph said the task would become more difficult when TV stations were
digitalised soon.

One way was for the government and his ministry to have a fund to produce
more local content to meet the needs of all TV stations in the country, he said.

While replying Shamsul Anuar's original question on why there were so many
foreign programmes and films broadcast on local TV stations, Joseph said 60 per
cent of content was in Bahasa Malaysia and the rest in other languages

He said the government constantly monitored and censored foreign film
content in accordance with the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 and the
Film Censorship Act 2002.

-- BERNAMA