Tan Sri Mohd Sidek Hassan

Datuk Wira Kamaruddin SiarafNew ways of communication such as blogging promises torevolutionalise the way we receive and perceive information.Malcom X once said - “The media is the most powerful entity on earth.They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make theguilty innocent, and that’s power. Because they control the minds ofthe masses.”The advent of the new media has placed doubts in the minds of those who oncefelt the traditional media offered the gospel truth. Once the only source of news,it no longer appeals to the new demographic.We live in an era of speed and haste where we want the news before itbecomes news. Often, there is a strugglebetween veracity and rumour. With thethe prevalence of cable networks and realtime reporting, the credibility of information For every 10 households,demands attention.roughly three will haveThe Ministry of Information, Communicationand Culture (MOICC), as the main proponentof information and communications forthe Government, has had to redefine itsown views and practices of informationmanagement.The advent of new media has raised theissue of how communications must behandled.broadband access. Buttoday the question doesnot lie in access, but in theservice delivery and thespeed in which a persongets connected.Our struggle is no different from thechallenges facing any media organisations globally – moving from the traditionalor what we have known to the new yet popular unknown.The credibility of any responsible media and information organisation hinges onthe accuracy of facts in the dissemination of news. For this to happen, there mustnot only be depth but also reach - i.e. how far the news is able to go. There is anurban-rural digital divide in our country’s broadband connectivity (6:1, urban: rural).Even though there are some 29.6 million subscriptions of cellular phones (as atend of Q3 2009), household broadband penetration is at 27%.For every 10 households, roughly three will have broadband access. But today thequestion does not lie in access, but in the service delivery and the speed in whicha person gets connected.We are working to increase Internet penetration to allMalaysians with telcos.129