Media get more space in House, but Peart’s door remains
MORE space will be allocated to accommodate the growing Jamaican media in the Parliament, but the door that sparked accusations that the government had struck a blow to press freedom will remain.
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Michael Peart brooked no arguments from media bosses at a meeting yesterday to discuss the restrictions imposed on journalists by the House.
Peart, supported by Senate President, Dr Syringa Marshall Burnett and Clerk to the Houses Heather Cooke, announced the media would get additional space on the north and south galleries of the Parliament – behind the government and opposition benches.
And goaded by Marshall Burnett, he backed off a proposal to bar cameras from the current press box, agreeing to allow the media free movement within the designated areas.
Peart had hastily erected a door between the press box and the Hansard gallery, after an Observer photographer caught Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller sketching during a debate on a no-confidence motion brought against her government by the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party.
On October 20, parliamentary reporters were told that they would no longer get access to the public galleries and the Hansard area, triggering howls of protest from the media which saw the move as hurting press freedom and relations with the administration.
But yesterday Peart appeared to tender an olive branch, offering space in the mid-section of the north and south galleries, promising it will be fitted with the required outlets for sound purposes.
He said the change would serve as an interim measure until the space and resources became available to enable the Parliament to have its very own video and sound facilities from which media houses would take their footage and recordings.
According to Peart, when this happens no independent cameras will be allowed into the parliament. Plans are to have the facility in place by the end of the 2007 calendar year.
In the meantime, the House Speaker sought to convince the sceptical press group that the restrictions had nothing to do with the picture of the prime minister’s sketch, claiming instead that it was motivated by security concerns.
According to Peart, the Hansard area had always been a restricted area and he had not been aware of the breaches prior to the doodling affair. Furthermore, he continued to insist that he had taken the decision to have the door installed independently of any advice from the prime minister or any other government or opposition member.
Additionally, media workers would no longer be allowed into the lobby area which gives access to the parliamentary chamber, the conference rooms or the library without special permission. Media personnel will only be allowed to access the building from the main entrance of the Parliament.
No amount of arguing could deflect the Speaker’s stance as he maintained that the rules had always existed and were now being enforced. In response to comments that the freedom of the press was being unfairly curtailed, Peart said the Jamaican press had been given much more freedom than what obtains in other parliaments he has visited.
In the end it was agreed that any further decisions to be taken with regards to the media would be done only after consultation with representatives of the media.
Among the media representatives at the meeting were: Dr David McBean, president of the Media Association of Jamaica; Desmond Richards, president of the Press Association of Jamaica; Kay Osborne, general manager of Television Jamaica; Garfield Grandison, editor-in-chief of The Gleaner; Moya Thomas, RJR group director of news, Milton Walker, CVM director of news; Earl Moxam of Power 106 News; Vernon Davidson, executive editor – publications, Desmond Allen, executive editor – operations and Pete Sankey, senior associate editor, all of the Observer and Ken Chaplin, veteran journalist.