Lawmaker Mahfuz Omar (PAS-Pokok Sena) has demanded that a restriction on the number of media covering Parliament be revised.

He said the media should not be restricted to just three from each organisation, and asked if Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Azalina Othman Said could give journalists more space. She is the minister in charge of parliamentary affairs.

"I understand the reason behind it is there is limited space [...] but previously government officers were on the first floor (not in the lobby).

"Previously Arau (Shahidan Kassim) and Padang Renggas (Nazri Abdul Aziz) did not need the whole floor [...] but today I see that the minister (Azalina) has taken over the whole floor," Mahfuz told the House today.

Currently, the media are placed in the right wing of the lobby, while government officers are in the left wing.

This is a departure of the seating arrangements when Shahidan and Nazri were in charge of parliamentary affairs.

During their tenure, both wings were for the media, while the first floor housed both the parliamentary affairs minister's office as well as the government officers' monitoring parliament.

As such Mahfuz said the government officers, whose task is to jot down notes for future parliamentary replies, should be put back on the first floor so that the media has more space.

He also asked the limit of three journalists per organisation be revised to about five or six.

The limit came into force on Monday, with Parliament citing lack of space as the reason.

Speaker's decision

Azalina later refuted Mahfuz's allegations in her Budget debate winding-up speech.

She denied taking the first floor all to herself and said there was a space for welcoming dignitaries and guests to Parliament and even space for selected media to do their recordings.

"Pokok Sena clearly did not visit the irst floor before making his claims.

"He should have at least asked Seputeh (Teresa Kok) Sungai Petani (Johari Abdul) and Rantau Panjang (Siti Zailah Mohd Yusoff) who have visited the minister's office and know what's going on," Azalina said.

She reiterated the decision to limit media personnel was made by Speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia.

She also said a proposal by Liew Chin Tong (DAP-Kluang) for a new building to house the government officers in Parliament will be raised with the Parliament’s director-general.

Liew said he had proposed the idea in order to free up space for the media in the main building.