II. MEDIA DIVISION In its effort to raise awareness and to sensitise all stakeholders on contentious human rights issues, the Media Division continued to serve as the Commission’s central point for all media communications. CHAPTER 2 1. PRESS STATEMENTS AND RELEASES The Human Rights Commission of Malaysia Act 1999, under Section 4(2), empowers the Commission to issue public statements on human rights. Throughout the year, the Commission issued a total of 32 press statements on a range of human rights issues including public assembly, SOSMA, sexual offences against children, child labour, Orang Asli, death penalty, corporal punishment, CEDAW, corruption, and freedom of religion. Although the Commission since its inception has been actively issuing press statements on a wide range of human rights issues, it is noted that local media coverage on matters pertaining to human rights is still rather limited. While most online news portals have been very receptive of the statements issued by the Commission, the same unfortunately cannot be said of the mainstream media. Also, the contents of statements issued by the Commission have sometimes not been adequately reflected in media reports. Undeniably, one of the main reasons for the lack of coverage on human rights issues is the limited knowledge and understanding of human rights among media practitioners in the country. Despite such shortcomings, the Commission has high hopes that the media will continue to be supportive in drawing attention to human rights issues, and most importantly to provide the public with full, fair, and accurate information on human rights issues in order to end the negative perception that human rights is a western agenda. 2. MEDIA CONFERENCES AND INTERVIEWS In 2016, the Commission, through the Media Division, conducted two press conferences, one of which was to introduce the new line-up of Commissioners for the term of 2016-2019. The Commission also attended six media interviews in the same year. Starting October, the Commission has been holding monthly get-together sessions with a group of experienced media professionals. The main objectives of this were for the Commission to proactively engage with the media, to give updates on the Commission’s ongoing work on human rights-related issues, as well as to share good practices with the media practitioners. As at 31 December, the Commission has managed to hold three such sessions with the media. 90 SUHAKAM ANNUAL REPORT 2016 suhakam 2new.indd 90 3/23/17 5:54 PM