PUTRAJAYA: Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob will launch the largest gathering of Malaysian journalists at the National Journalists’ Day 2022 (Hawana) celebration next month.

       The Prime Minister, who met with media representatives yesterday, agreed to attend the event scheduled for May 29 in Melaka.

       The celebration is to honour journalists in the country, the Malaysian-Indonesian Journalists’ Association (Iswami) said in a statement yesterday.

       The celebration will also be held in conjunction with the first publication of Utusan Melayu on May 29, 1939.

       The first National Journalists’ Day was held in 2018.

       Among the media representatives who attended the meeting with the Prime Minister yesterday were Iswami president Datuk Mokhtar Hussain, adviser Datuk Zakaria Abdul Wahab, Bernama acting chief executive officer Roslan Ariffin and Astro Awani editor-in-chief Ashwad Ismail.

       Iswami also said it and Bernama would take the leading role in the celebration, involving other media agencies, associations and practitioners.