Are reporters “wild and dangerous beasts” who must be caged in Parliament so that they do not run wild to “ambush” Ministers and MPs?
This is my protest in Parliament at the end of question time over the new restriction barring media representatives access to the lobby with an obscene barricade of the area.
At the beginning of the Parliament meeting today, Penang Chief Minister and DAP MP for Bagan Lim Guan Eng had protested against the ruling as tantamount to a clampdown on press freedom.
In calling for the withdrawal of the clampdown on parliamentary reporters, he said: “There is no justification whatsoever for restricting reporters to a small corner as if they pose a grave danger to security and a threat to the safety of parliamentarians. No MP has ever suffered personal injury or threats from reporters accredited to cover the Parliament.
“By imposing such restrictions merely for the personal comfort and conveniences of certain individuals would contravene the basic spirit of democracy and respect the sanctity of Parliament where reporters can carry out their duties to communicate debate on policy in an accurate and professional manner.”
Regrettably, Guan Eng was booed by Barisan Nasional MPs for taking up the cudgel on behalf of parliamentary reporters, who have also protested and launched a boycott of all press conferences or events outside the parliamentary chamber.
Deputy speaker Datuk Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar, who was presiding over the sitting, was non-committal, saying that he would have to first discuss the matter with speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia and the other deputy speaker, Datuk Ronald Kiandee.
At about 11.05 am, I left the chamber together with Guan Eng and other DAP MPs to the Speaker’s Chamber to discuss the new press restrictions with Pandikar Amin, but was told that the Speaker would only come in for the afternoon session.
When I returned to the Chamber as I have a motion to adjourn the House to discuss Raja Petra Kamaruddin’s statutory declaration which had named three persons who were also at the scene of the murder of Mongolian national Altantuya Shaariibuuu in October 2006, which is slated after question time at 11.30 a.m, I saw on my table a letter from the Speaker rejecting in chamber my Standing Order 18 application on the ground of the on-going murder trial of Altantuya.