Tuesday June 24, 2008
Nazri:Limit on number of reporters due to security reasons
KUALA LUMPUR: Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in charge of Parliamentary matters Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Aziz maintained that only five journalists from each media organisation would be allowed into Parliament despite protests from the media.
“Five is more than enough. If five is not enough then something is wrong with you all. It shows you are not efficient. It’s as simple as that.
“We have to limit the number because even if it’s just five, if there are 10 papers, it’s 50 reporters already,” he said.
On Friday, a press statement was issued from Parliament saying that only five journalists from each news organisation would be allowed in Parliament from yesterday. The Parliament administration stated that the limit was for security reasons.
However, yesterday, nearly all the local media organizations had sent more than five staff and there was much relief when they were allowed in without any problems.
When contacted National Union of Journalists (NUJ) president Norila Mohd Daud said journalists were offended by Nazri’s statement.
She said it was not the matter of journalists being efficient or not.
“Since there are a lot of things happening in Parliament, it is necessary for journalists to get news out fast.
“Reporters may not be able to cover much if the number is limited to five, as at the moment there are a lot of important issues being brought up,” she said.
Asked what NUJ was going to do about the ruling, she said they would have to wait and see if five journalists from each media could handle the situation.
“Otherwise we will have to appeal to allow more journalists to cover the sessions,” she added.
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