With rising criticism over his restrictions on media access to the National Assembly, Speaker Manzoor Nadir today challenged APNU Member of Parliament, Sherod Duncan to bring a motion to the House and have it debated on the issue.

At the start of his debate presentation, MP Duncan raised the issue of the limitations and restrictions that have been placed on media houses with regards to their access to the National Assembly to provide coverage of the 13th Parliament.

The Speaker quickly interjected and turned to the Standing Orders to point out that it is the Speaker who grants permission to the representative of any media house to attend sittings of the National Assembly under rules that the Assembly may make from time to time.

Jumping to his feet, Nadir defended his decision on limiting access to the National Assembly to just five journalists and blocking cameras other than those belonging to the Department of Public Information from covering the sittings.

“You have an option, you can mislead persons who want to go down that road or bring a Motion, until then, I will continue to ensure that the media, the private media and the state media have access. No one is being restricted from covering the proceedings of this House”, Nadir insisted, even as the limitations and restrictions remained in place today.

The Guyana Press Association has condemned the actions of the Speaker in restricting and limiting media access to the National Assembly. The Association has also made its concerns known to the Government and Opposition, the Diplomatic Corps and its international media partners.

During his statement today, Nadir also erroneously stated that the Guyana Press Association has the responsibility on deciding who from the various media houses are allowed to take up the five available seats for the media. The Guyana Press Association has never had that responsibility.

Senior media members have pointed out that the Speaker keeps making reference to an agreement that was in place during the COVID-19 pandemic when the 12th Parliament was opened in 2020. There has been no other agreement since then on media accommodation in the Assembly, and Nadir has repeatedly dismissed the concerns of media entities and media workers about his new rules.

A number of media workers also took to the Parliament’s Facebook page last evening and this morning after a photo of empty chairs was posted with an accompanying statement from the Parliament office, which sought to give the impression that the media members were not taking up the provided seats.

Media workers who covered the Assembly on Monday made it clear that the post was dishonest as the photograph was taken late last night when those who were present left the Assembly to file their reports.

With regards to footage being provided to the media from the DPI cameras, the Head of DPI has made it clear that the Unit has no such responsibility when it comes to the Parliament and its contractual arrangements to provide technical assistance. He said that issue lies solely with the Parliament Office.

Related posts:

Speaker uses COVID-19 measures to restrict media access to National Assembly;GPA and Journalists Condemn move Speaker plans strict enforcement of restriction of unparliamentary words and phrases during Budget debates Speaker disallows Opposition motion to discuss and make recommendations for Mahdia COI Terms of Reference APNU+AFC Opposition submits no-confidence motion against Speaker