LEADER of Opposition Business in the House of Representatives, Derrick Smith, says he is still awaiting a response from House Speaker Michael Peart to his request for a meeting on the new rules for media access implemented last week at Gordon House.

Smith told yesterday’s monthly meeting of the Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP’s) Area Council One (Kingston and St Andrew) that although he had written Peart about the matter from October 23, to date he had not received a response. The speaker, he said, had promised to write him on the matter.

Peart and clerk Heather Cooke last week implemented new rules barring journalists and cameramen from accessing the public galleries and the Hansard area, a move that has been severely criticised by the Opposition and members of the public.

The rules were introduced in reaction to an Observer photograph of Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller doodling during the Leader of the Opposition’s contribution to a debate on the JLP’s no confidence motion in the House on October 17.

Yesterday, Smith told the gathering at the Duhaney Park Primary School (west St Andrew) that the new rules were inappropriate in a situation in which the press gallery is already overcrowded, and journalists were experiencing difficulties in giving proper coverage to Parliament.

He also noted that, in the new dispensation, cameramen would only be able to capture the backs of Opposition speakers because of the angle they were limited to shoot from.

“I wrote him suggesting that he seek a better alternative than barring the media from the gallery, and that it would have been better if he had referred the matter to the House Committee that has responsibility to deal with issues like these.

“I also suggested to him that myself a Leader of Opposition Business and the Leader of the House (Dr Peter Phillip) should also meet with him argue this matter,” Smith added.