Umar Kabir, clerk of the senate
committee on special duties, walked out some reporters from a budget defence
session on Friday.
The reporters had gone to a
hearing room where the budget defence of North-East Development Commission and
National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and IDPs but Kabir said they could
not be at the session.
This is despite an invitation
that had already been extended to the press corps by Yusuf Yusuf, chairman of
the committee.
Shortly before the session
commenced, the clerk asked journalists present at the hearing room to introduce
themselves.
Kabir said they did not want
online media — who were there with other print journalists – because they are
not regulated and backed up by law.
“Are you conventional media?
Please leave. We don’t want online media here,” he said.
“Because online media
organisations are not regulated and we don’t want them here because they are
not backed by law. No online media is regulated.
“I have already told your
colleagues who had been here before you that you guys are not wanted here. I
have the directive of the chairman to do what I’m doing.”
When asked if he does not mind he
would be quoted, he said: “Go ahead, I don’t care what you write.”
Since the budget defence
commenced, a number of committees have held the exercise behind closed doors.
Chapter 8 (102) of the senate
standing rules says all public hearing should be public except in matters that
has to do with national security.
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