THE Press Association of Jamaica (PAJ) has condemned the behaviour of Member of Parliament for St Catherine South West Everald Warmington, who physically and verbally abused journalists who had gone to cover an event at the Jamaica labour Party headquarters in St Andrew on Friday.

“The PAJ is condemning in the strongest possible terms, the behaviour of Member of Parliament …Everald Warmington towards a Gleaner intern and other reporters at the JLP’s headquarters at Belmont Road yesterday,” the organisation said of the attack on the media workers.

The latest in the series of events surrounding the firebrand MP later resulted in him appearing on social media with an apparent apology. He even suggested that the Gleaner intern could speak with him and photograph him if she chose to.

“While taking note that Mr Warmington has apologised, we believe that his apology has much less impact than it otherwise would, given that this is but the latest in a series of incidents in which Mr Warmington has acted in this boorish, vulgar, and loutish way towards members of the media. We have heard his apologies before,” stated the news release from the PAJ over the signature of the organisation’s president, Dionne Jackson Miller.

“While we in the media are fully aware that we will often encounter opposition or obstacles as we try to do our job, Mr Warmington’s behaviour as described goes beyond that which is acceptable.

“We believe what Mr Warmington needs to do now goes beyond a simple apology. He needs to find a way to assure Jamaicans that in a year or two, we will not be listening to another set of apologies after another offensive outburst. Enough is enough,” the PAJ said.

Although there has been a string of irregular public verbal atrocities by Warmington, the Jamaica Labour Party has not moved to sanction him for his crass behaviour, local journalists have stated.

One told the Jamaica Observer yesterday, that the party’s leader, Andrew Holness, needed to act “as a matter of urgency” to “drill some sense” into Warmington, and warn him that the continuation of such acts would not be tolerated by the party.

Warmington is known to be a supporter of the embattled Holness, who is fighting to stay on as leader of the JLP. However, in recent weeks, there have been whispers that he has had policy differences with his leader, and the two do not enjoy the once close relationship that they had up to six months ago.