Only government media can cover Perak state assembly sitting

Only official government media are now allowed to cover the one-day Perak state assembly sitting tomorrow, despite an earlier invitation to all media to send one journalist and one photographer.

“After taking into consideration the announcement from Prime Minister (Muhyiddin Yassin) about the extension of the conditional movement control order (MCO) and in efforts to curb the risk of Covid-19 transmission in Perak, the administration has decided to limit the invites to the sitting.

“As such, the administration has decided that only official media are allowed to attend to cover the session,” said the state secretariat’s office in a statement today.

They said that the media passes which had been distributed to the other media agencies before this will be cancelled with immediate effect.

However, they noted that all media can still follow the proceedings through a livestream on Facebook.

It was previously reported that Perak Menteri Besar Ahmad Faizal Azumu had received Perak’s Sultan Nazrin Muizzuddin Shah’s consent for the one-day sitting. The ruler would also be opening the sitting.

Faizal (photo) had said there will be no oral question-and-answer session, and only written answers. All state assemblypersons would also have to undergo a screening for Covid-19 before the sitting.

This is similar to the Dewan Rakyat, which is scheduled to hold a one-day sitting on May 18.

Dewan Rakyat Speaker Mohamad Ariff Mohd Yusof had said on May 8 that only government-owned media would be allowed to attend and cover the sitting on May 18, citing Covid-19 as a reason. 

May 18 will be the first Parliament sitting since the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government came into power in late February.

The Malacca state assembly also sat for a one-day sitting today for the first time since PN took over the state government.

All media, including official media, were initially barred from covering the session. 

Only an in-house media team from the Malacca Chief Minister’s Department was allowed to shoot the sitting today, with state assembly officials citing the Covid-19 pandemic for the media ban.

However, the Chief Minister’s Office later negotiated to allow only government press agencies to cover the sitting.

The house later descended into pandemonium as PN representatives protested against Speaker Omar Jaafar’s decision to reject a motion to remove him as the House speaker. - Mkini