Bung Moktar Radin launched a broadside at Astro in Parliament today, prompting Deputy Speaker Ismail Mohamad Said to take a dig at the controversial lawmaker’s wife, who is an actress.
The Kinabatangan MP accused Astro of shortchanging the government and people by screening advertisements and wanted action to be taken against the satellite television provider.
“According to the agreement, Astro cannot screen advertisements because it is a paid satellite television provider, even TV3 loses (in terms of advertisements), we don’t see them (Astro) being brought to court,” he reportedly told Parliament.
He said while Astro pocketed billions in terms of advertisement revenue, the government and people were duped.
“Close down Astro which does not bring any revenue (for the people and government),” he was quoted as saying in an article published on the BN Backbenchers Club website.
His outburst led the deputy speaker to remark, “Kinabatangan (Bung), are you not worried that some actors may not be allowed on Astro?”
This was in reference to the lawmaker’s wife Zizie Ezette, a local actress whose drama series is currently aired on Astro.
The deputy speaker’s jibe drew laughter from the House and a tickled Bung replied, “Income can be found anywhere.”
Responding to Bung, Communication and Multimedia Deputy Minister Jailani Johar said the advertisements screened by Astro were only for 10 minutes and this was a universal practice for paid satellite television providers.
Furthermore, he added that Astro only raised its charges this year after introducing four new channels as well as high definition programmes.
Earlier, Umno’s Pengerang MP Azalina Othman Said interrupted Bung and suggested that the government conduct a research on allowing Digital TV as its quality was better.
Several Pakatan Rakyat MPs also stood up asking the government to give the green light for the usage of parabola so that the people can have access to more channels. - Mkini
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.