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New ruling treats Press like pests, say journos: Reporters covering the on-going Dewan Rakyat session have decided to boycott the Parliament's lobby in protest of a new ruling that they say treats them like pests rather than press.
The lobby is where reporters station themselves, sometimes all day long, in order to catch MPs for comments and news. It's been a practice for decades. Effective this week, the whole lobby has been cordoned off (imagine a police crime scene, yellow tapes, barricades).
Reporters prohibited. Not allowed. No Entry. Main jauh-jauh. The reporters may enter the lobby area only between 1 and 2.30 in the afternoon. "If we want to catch an MP or Minister, we'd have to holler or jump up and down to catch his or her attention from outside the area.
How demeaning is that?," a fed-up journo told me this morning. Very insulting, indeed.
Nazri Aziz, the Minister in charge of Parliament, must withdraw immeditaely this latest stupid regulation of his. And also the earlier, equally ridiculous one limiting each newspaper to only 5 reporters covering Parliament at any one time.
The media in this country need to be liberated, not suppressed further. (But if Nazri is so keen to police the Press, he should lobby the PM to be the Editorial Adviser or the Group Editor in Chief of the NSTP. Heard the incumbents are leaving soon).
at 10:08 AM
at 10:08 AM
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