THE Press Association of Jamaica (PAJ), noting with dismay an exchange between state minister with responsibility for works Everald Warmington and a Business Access TV reporter, has called on Prime Minister Andrew Holness to state whether he supports the junior minister’s conduct.

“On numerous occasions in the past, he (Warmington) has verbally abused members of the press without any satisfactory response from the prime minister,” the PAJ said in a release yesterday.

The PAJ said Warmington’s “loutish behaviour” is sufficient grounds for the association to ask Holness to state “clearly and definitively” whether he supports this kind of conduct from a Member of Parliament he saw fit to appoint as a state minister.

The reporter, Sashana Small, was not calling Warmington to discuss personal business, the PAJ statement read.

“She called him in line with her job as a member of the fourth estate,” it continued. “Miss Small does admit she did start her recording before informing Mr Warmington.

“She says she didn’t get the chance to tell him he was ‘on the record’. It is however important to note that she never used the recording in any news broadcast,” the PAJ said.

Acknowledging that no elected or appointed official must speak with the press, the PAJ said: “But we demand that when they do so they speak with respect and decency”.