Veteran journalist A Kadir Jasin said there were now no laws to bar political parties from owning a stake in a media company.

“It’s up to you. You have the right to go and petition your MPs to pass a law to say that you do not want the newspapers to be owned by political parties.

“If Parliament approves it, then the law will be enacted and political parties cannot own newspapers, but as it stands today, anybody can own newspapers,” he told reporters at Menara Ilham here today.

Kadir is the head of media and communication of the Council of Eminent Persons (CEP) set up by Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Meanwhile, on calls by the Utusan Melayu (M) Berhad chapter of the National Union of Malaysian Journalists (NUJ) for Umno to revamp Utusan Malaysia’s editorial department, Kadir said NUJ has the right to voice out its views as a union representing the journalists at the newspaper.

However, he said, the matter could only be decided by Umno as the majority shareholder of the company.

“Even the government cannot intervene… as it belongs to Umno. But if anyone wants to buy it, that’s another story, because in Utusan Melayu it is not just Umno that owns the shares, there are also institutional investors who own shares. Of course, they do not want to hold shares in a company that does not make profit,” he said.

On May 30, a news portal reported that the Utusan Melayu (M) Berhad chapter of the NUJ had submitted a memorandum on May 26 to Umno vice-president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, who is discharging the duties of the president, calling for the revamp.