Journalists given tough time at Parliament

Parliament’s long-running ‘love affair’ with journalists saw a fresh episode today - reporters without the government-issued media tags were barred from entering the building.

At least five journalists and photographers with expired media tags or who only had their company passes were not allowed in when they arrived to cover the proceedings this morning.

They were from Nanyang Siang Pau, Merdeka Review, New Straits Times, Star, TheSun and Malaysiakini.

Security personnel screened all journalists, explaining that the additional checks and stern action are due to a new directive from their officers.

Those journalists who were admitted to the building were in for another shock - they had no access to power supply at the lobby as the sockets had been blocked off.

According to the security office, the 'lock-down' was due to the fact that too much power was being used in the lobby, thereby disrupting the main power supply.

However, after numerous complaints from journalists, a limited number of sockets were made available at 11.15am.

When contacted Parliament chief administrator Kamaruddin Baria said only journalists with Bernama -issued passes will be allowed in.

"But what you can do is write a letter saying that you are in the process of applying for the pass," he said before cutting off the phone conversation.

This is not the first time the Parliament security team has prevented journalists from performing their duties. During the June parliamentary sitting last year, journalists were barred from working in the lobby.

This prompted around 100 journalists to boycott all press conference and events in the lobby. However, the ban was rescinded the next day.