KUALA LUMPUR: Radio Televisyen Malaysia (RTM) still buysprogrammes from local producers and will continue doing so.
Director-General of Broadcasting, Datuk Abu Bakar Ab Rahim said, however, the purchases would be carefully made in accordance with the needs and careful planning, especially after criticisms received from the Auditor-General’s Report recently.
“For now, RTM is retaining the quota of purchases for drama programmes and local films compared to the foreign shows.
“Throughout this year, other than the MH17 and MH370 incidences, RTM also screened the FIFA World Cup 2014 which reduced screening hours for local dramas and programmes.
“At the same time, RTM still has programmes purchased in previous years which had not yet been screened,” he said in a statement here today.
He added that this contributed to the reduction in purchase of programmes by local producers this year.
Abu Bakar was speaking when commenting on the comments made by famed actor and producer, Datuk Rosyam Nor in his column in the Bipop pull-out of local Malay weekly newspaper Berita Minggu recently, titled ‘RTM does not buy dramas from arts activities since last January, causing the Malay film industry to suffer.’
He said RTM as the national broadcasting station was always working to help the national film industry and was the major buyer of local programmes.
On a separate development, Abu Bakar said the department welcomed the announcement by the Ministry of Communications and Multimedia recently to set up a consultative council for the creative industry to discuss issues relating to it. — BERNAMA