KUALA LUMPUR - IN THEIR news reports on errant taxi drivers, the media must include the registration number of their vehicles to be fair to their innocent colleagues said reports on Thursday.

Otherwise, Entrepreneur and Cooperatives Development Minister Datuk Noh Omar said, random reports on the wrong-doings of taxi drivers would only create a negative perception of the fraternity.

'When a negative report is made at random against taxi drivers, their pride will be hurt and people will start losing faith in them,' he said.

Noh was speaking at a dialogue with taxi drivers, during which he presented approval letters for 1,515 private taxi drivers on Thursday.

On a possibility that the safety of a taxi driver would be threatened if the taxi registration number was disclosed, the minister said it would depend on the public evaluation.

'What matters is that we do not want the innocent taxi drivers to be blamed for the wrong-doings of their irresponsible counterparts,' he said. -- Bernama