Lee: Safety equipment a necessity for media members
The Star Online, 1 July 2013
NUSAJAYA: Local media companies are urged not to withhold on investing in the right types of safety equipment for media members to ensure their safety while carrying out their reporting duties.
National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) chairman Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye said this was to safeguard the media practitioner’s safety and minimise the risk faced when doing fieldwork.
“Personal protective equipment is a necessary investment and media companies must be ready to invest in them,” he said.
He was speaking at a press conference here after a half-day seminar organised by NIOSH for members of the media in Johor Baru held at The Ledang Urban Retreat recently.
Lee added that safety hazards at the work place does not only limit to those working with heavy machineries or in the construction and oil and gas industries as media practitioners are also exposed to such risks.
He said journalists, cameramen, photographers and video journalists are known to go through great lengths to get a certain photo angle or story for their reports while disregarding their own safety.
He stressed the importance of self-regulation on personal safety for media members saying that while it was their responsibility to deliver news to the masses, it was also equally important not to needlessly expose themselves to danger.
“Media members who put themselves in those circumstances are behaving unprofessionally as it has the possibility of preventing the story from being told or the photo from being seen,” Lee added.
Lee also encouraged media companies to refer to a 76-page guideline on safe work practices for media professionals published by the Department of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) last year.
He said that the guideline touched on the severity of hazard, risk measurement, classification of risk level and the level of threat against the working condition.
Some 30 members of the media from various companies like The Star, Utusan Malaysia, Kosmo!, Sinar Harian, China Press, Sin Chew Daily, Oriental Daily and Media Prima attended the talk by two speakers from NIOSH.
