Leadership of Parliament has moved to calm down agitated members of the Parliamentary Press Corps (PPC) with an assurance there is no attempt to gag the media or redirect the way they do their work in the House.
According to the leadership, a directive to the media by Speaker Prof. Aaron Michael Oquaye on Wednesday was not intended to censure the work of journalists in Parliament.
It assured the Press Corps that the Speaker’s intervention was a guide to ensure the rules of the House and the sanctity of its procedures are adhered to.
Majority leader Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu and Minority leader Haruna Iddrisu gave the assurances at a media engagement with members of the Press Corps after Parliament was criticized for overt attempts to gag journalists who report from House.
The Majority leader told the Corps his observation on Wednesday, which sparked the reaction was meant to draw the attention of journalists to the rules of the House.
According to him, there was no attempt to offend or gag media houses in Parliament even if the Speaker’s directive appears to suggest so.
He argued that there is no democracy that does not have rules and stressed, “You variously applied to be here and you did so through the speaker. There certainly are some rules that that must be conformed to.”
“So if the speaker believes that something untoward is happening and he called attention to it, I don’t believe honestly, that can be construed to mean the speaker attempting to gag media houses,” he added.
Mr. Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu parried demands for apology from the Press Corps and questioned whether the journalists would demand such apology from their fathers.
Minority leader Haruna Iddrisu noted that Parliament as an institution is the citadel of democracy and the media remains a strong ally in the attempt to strengthen the ethos of democracy and accountability.
“We will not, as an institution, support any individual or institution that wants to limit the frontiers of media freedom,” he said.
He urged the Press Corps to desist from adding weight to the issue to further misconstrue the guidance and directive of the Speaker, which may have been media inappropriate.
The House, he said, will respect the rights of the Press Corps members and the work they do.
“Indeed, it will be fatal to our democracy to want to limit press freedom or to limit the right of the voice of the Minority to articulate alternative opinions as required under the 1992 Constitution.”
He assured that leadership will not be party to any decision or initiative that will undermine the frontiers of press freedom.
