KOTA KINABALU, 8 OCT – Budget 2025 is expected to take into account the needs of media practitioners and the newspaper industry in Sabah to ensure that the industry continues to be able to play its role in contributing to the development of the country effectively.
Chief Editor Sabah Borneo MessengerDatuk Lichong Angkui said practitioners and the media industry in the state need to be encouraged in the form of incentives and subsidies since the telecommunications infrastructure is still behind compared to the Peninsular due to its geography and topography.
“We hope that through the 2025 Budget, there will be special packages and incentives for media practitioners, for example the mobile phone bill rebate rate will be increased for media practitioners in Sabah compared to the peninsula.
“Perhaps consideration may also be given to special subsidies for the purchase of laptops and other gadgets used by journalists,” he said Named.
He said those two matters need to be considered, taking into account the much higher cost of living in Sabah, while the wage rate and employment of local media practitioners in the state is much lower.
He said, the imbalance in the wage rates of media practitioners between Sabah and the Peninsular, among others, is because there are no trade unions in the state that fight for their fate through the Collective Agreement (CA) like in the Peninsular.
At the same time, Lichong also suggested that the government should try to increase the rate of broadband penetration in Sabah since currently many areas do not have good Internet coverage.
He also hopes that the government will introduce a proactive approach to save and develop the media industry in Malaysia as a whole. – Named
