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<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=1 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD><SPAN class=TopStory>Portia and the Press</SPAN>
<SPAN class=Subheadline></SPAN></TD></TR><TR><TD>Claude Robinson
Sunday, October 29, 2006
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<P class=StoryText align=justify>Government's decision to restrict access of the Press in Gordon House is a regrettable over-reaction to the Observer photograph of Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller's 'doodling' during the debate on a motion of no confidence in her administration over the Trafigura affair.<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width=90 align=left border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description>Claude Robinson </SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>I hope the prime minister had nothing to do with the crazy decision, which I would like to believe, was only a temporary lapse of understanding about how the Press works in our democracy.<P class=StoryText align=justify>At the time of writing (Thursday) word from the president of the Press Association of Jamaica, Desmond Richards, was that journalists would discuss the issue on Tuesday with Michael Peart, the Speaker of the House, at a meeting convened by the Speaker. That was a good sign that the decision might be reversed.<P class=StoryText align=justify>The Observer reported October 21 that a ban on journalists accessing certain areas of Gordon House since last June was expanded the day before to include sections of the public galleries and the Hansard area, reserved for persons producing the official record of what is said in Parliament.
This means that the Press is now restricted to a tiny space that cannot possibly accommodate the large number of media houses we have nowadays.<P class=StoryText align=justify>The original ban, which denied journalists access to the lobby area, was introduced in April 2004 after the press reported that then minister of foreign affairs and foreign trade, K D Knight, had used expletives to then minister of local government, Portia Simpson Miller.
It will be recalled that Knight and several other members of the government were upset over Mrs. Simpson Miller's abstention on a budget matter to show her disapproval of the financial provisions for the fire services for which she had ministerial responsibility.<P class=StoryText align=justify>The cause for the latest restriction was the now celebrated Observer front-page photograph in which Michael Gordon captured what appears more like sketching or drawing than the usually indecipherable 'doodling' that many people do during meetings. It was a great news photograph, which will almost certainly end with an award.<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width=120 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description>SIMPSON MILLER. should have written to Gordon to thank him for allowing her to share her art with the rest of the population, and ask him for a signed original which will be of great value after she wins her first mandate and the party's fifth </SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>People will have different interpretations of what the doodling says about the Prime Minister's state of mind, and I can even understand some concern at Jamaica House because it could give the impression that the prime minister was not paying attention to the Opposition.<P class=StoryText align=justify>To me, it was just a humorous picture showing a side of the prime minister I had not seen before. Rather than being embarrassed about it and blaming the messenger, a better reaction would have been to treat the matter with the light- heartedness it deserved.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Indeed, it would have
<SPAN class=Subheadline></SPAN></TD></TR><TR><TD>Claude Robinson
Sunday, October 29, 2006
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<P class=StoryText align=justify>Government's decision to restrict access of the Press in Gordon House is a regrettable over-reaction to the Observer photograph of Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller's 'doodling' during the debate on a motion of no confidence in her administration over the Trafigura affair.<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width=90 align=left border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description>Claude Robinson </SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>I hope the prime minister had nothing to do with the crazy decision, which I would like to believe, was only a temporary lapse of understanding about how the Press works in our democracy.<P class=StoryText align=justify>At the time of writing (Thursday) word from the president of the Press Association of Jamaica, Desmond Richards, was that journalists would discuss the issue on Tuesday with Michael Peart, the Speaker of the House, at a meeting convened by the Speaker. That was a good sign that the decision might be reversed.<P class=StoryText align=justify>The Observer reported October 21 that a ban on journalists accessing certain areas of Gordon House since last June was expanded the day before to include sections of the public galleries and the Hansard area, reserved for persons producing the official record of what is said in Parliament.This means that the Press is now restricted to a tiny space that cannot possibly accommodate the large number of media houses we have nowadays.<P class=StoryText align=justify>The original ban, which denied journalists access to the lobby area, was introduced in April 2004 after the press reported that then minister of foreign affairs and foreign trade, K D Knight, had used expletives to then minister of local government, Portia Simpson Miller.
It will be recalled that Knight and several other members of the government were upset over Mrs. Simpson Miller's abstention on a budget matter to show her disapproval of the financial provisions for the fire services for which she had ministerial responsibility.<P class=StoryText align=justify>The cause for the latest restriction was the now celebrated Observer front-page photograph in which Michael Gordon captured what appears more like sketching or drawing than the usually indecipherable 'doodling' that many people do during meetings. It was a great news photograph, which will almost certainly end with an award.<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width=120 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description>SIMPSON MILLER. should have written to Gordon to thank him for allowing her to share her art with the rest of the population, and ask him for a signed original which will be of great value after she wins her first mandate and the party's fifth </SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>People will have different interpretations of what the doodling says about the Prime Minister's state of mind, and I can even understand some concern at Jamaica House because it could give the impression that the prime minister was not paying attention to the Opposition.<P class=StoryText align=justify>To me, it was just a humorous picture showing a side of the prime minister I had not seen before. Rather than being embarrassed about it and blaming the messenger, a better reaction would have been to treat the matter with the light- heartedness it deserved.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Indeed, it would have