The Speaker of Parliament, Azhar Azizan Harun should reverse the atrocious and regressive policy of preventing media from covering the upcoming budget sitting. If he fails to do so, the reputation of the Speaker will be at risk of grave damage because he will be seen as trying to manipulate media narrative on parliament sitting.
Neither I nor anyone else would argue against stringent SOP in parliament to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic. Covid-19 protocols are non-negotiable. In fact, the opposition has taken the government to task for neglecting and breaking its own Covid-19 safety laws. Yet, is this a good reason to prevent the journalists from performing their duty to report on parliament proceeding, especially one as important as the annual federal budget? To use Covid-19 as an excuse to censure the media is not only irresponsible but atrocious and regressive.
Rather than restricting to only 15 media outlets selected arbitrarily, the Speaker should instead implement clear SOP, such as limiting the number of journalists on duty from each media outlet, health protocols such as MySejahtera log, social distancing, wearing of face mask etc for all media. No media should be prevented from coming to parliament to cover parliamentary business because parliament’s business is the people’s business and the people have the right to be informed thereof via fair media reporting.
In fact, if anything, Parliament should restrict the size of ministers’ entourages. During the last sitting, ministers and deputy ministers attended parliament trailed by large groups of people. While we recognise that civil servants are present to assist in ministries’ parliamentary affairs, parliament should be wary of lobbyists and political followers crowding the august building. Hence, if the Speaker felt that there is a need to restrict the number of people coming into parliament, then cut down the ministers’ entourages not the fourth estate, i.e. the media.
According to Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2020, online media remained the major sources of news for Malaysians. The top online news portal being listed in the report included Malaysiakini, Astro Awani Online, The Star Online, Berita Harian Online, Sinar Harian, Free Malaysia Today, The Malaysian Insight and etc. It does not make sense then that media outlets such as Malaysiakini, Free Malaysia Today and The Malaysian Insight were prevented from covering parliament events.
Even among mainstream media, not all of them are treated equally. 8TV news which has a higher reach than other channels, is not on the list of “approved” media by parliament.
The Speaker must reverse this atrocious and regressive policy before parliament sits in a fortnight’s time. Instead of censuring the media, allow all media to take part but set out strict Covid-19 SOP for all who are coming to parliament, whether media personnel, ministers, deputy ministers or Members of Parliament.