KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 6 — Social Security Organisation (Perkeso) contributions for media practitioners, especially for stringers (part-time or freelance journalists) need to be expedited, Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil said today.

He added that this would allow them to obtain benefits from Perkeso, including death and disability benefits, that would offer better protections.

"We need to champion and ensure that media friends, both full-timer and part-timers, become contributors, as without them we will be without news... doesn’t matter editors or photographers,” he said, adding that he had asked several media practitioner associations, including the Journalists Association and the Malaysian Entertainment Writers Association, to discuss and seek a solution to the matter.

He made these comments to reporters in the presence of KRU Entertainment president and chief executive officer (CEO) Datuk Norman Abdul Halim and Lembah Jaya assemblyman Syed Ahmad Syed Abdul Rahman Alhadad, who is also known as the rapper Altimet.

They were visiting the family of KRU Media-owned Boom Malaysia and Jurnal Malaysia entertainment journalist, Siti Nor Hafiza Kamarudin, who died in London on December 28, at her home in Ampang here today following her funeral at Raudhatul Sakinah Muslim Cemetery today.

Her mother, Siti Nooriah Hasan, 69, said that she has accepted the loss of her eldest child, who she described as a filial daughter, who did her to ensure her parents were well-taken care of.

"Every year during Hari Raya, she would always come back and help prepare the home and also tend to other related matters, so we will definitely miss her come the next Hari Raya,” she said.

Siti Nor Hafiza’s colleague during their time at Astro Gempak, Asraf Aided, who also paid a visit to the grieving family, said that Siti Nor Hafiza was a very cheerful friend who always made people around her happy.

"She was a strong fighter and never gave up hope, she never showed she was in pain even though we could see she was weak and not as healthy,” the Suria7 entertainment magazine journalist added. — Bernama