The Malaysian media freedom committee of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) has urged Dewan Rakyat speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia to reverse his decision to ban media from the Parliament hallway, in a move that will further limit media access.

The committee said the Parliament House has thus far been fair in allowing access for all, in contrast to other official communications channels in Malaysia, including official press conferences, where media access is stringently controlled.

"(But) the ban that came into force on March 21 has placed a black mark on this record," said the group in a statement today.

"We stand in solidarity with the Malaysian media in their attempts to perform their duties and to keep government and elected representatives accountable,"

Pandikar was reported as saying that the March 21 ban has been imposed because reporters were harassing MPs with questions whenever the latter left the chambers...