The Prime Minister’s Office’s appointment of veteran journalist A Kadir Jasin as the media and communications adviser last month is to help the newly-minted Pakatan Harapan government to honour its pledge to unshackle the press.

It is learnt that one of the key tasks for Kadir, who was group editor of the New Straits Times, is to ensure that the media will have “the freedom to act as a check and balance against the government”...