For the whole of Tuesday, the Press corp were up in arms against the administrators of Parliament House. So much so that they ignored the Press Conferences of Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and his deputy, Najib Tun Razak.
The reason? They were cordoned into a small area in the Parliament lobby and told that their their operations area were confined behind a taped surrounding. They were also told that each media houise could only send five personnel to cover the proceedings in the Dewan Rakyat.
With the unofficial support from their bosses, they boycotted the separate PCs called by Abdullah and Najib. Bernama and RTM broke ranks to cover them, as did Berita Harian. What a shame!
One day after the boycott, the restriction was lifted and things went back as before. Speaker Pandikar Amin Mula called off the restriction when the Backbenchers Club took up the journalists grievances.
Such impediment to media work is not new. There were functions when the media was barred from covering. The organisers got away with this many times because the media is not united. If they are, they can speak with one voice and state their terms clearly and firmly.
Alas, given the present leadership at media organisations, such disunity can be expected to continue. The editors are not likely to stick their out and defend their boys and girls, let alone their right to discharge their responsibilities professionally.
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1 comment:
bro,
its time to get rid of the editors-in-chief, too. as political appointees, they play too much BALLS. Thats whay BH and Utusan are losing so much in their daily circulation.
Then, talk about TV stations. Will the government permit us to set up another station with no hooks being imposed, so that we can get balanced reports, as long as we dont play religious and racial sentiments?
will they?
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