Parliament has taken additional security measures but kept its threat to ban journalists from using smartphones while in the Chamber.
Speaker of Parliament, Alban S.K. Bagbin, yesterday announced that no Member of Parliament or a visitor, including journalists, would be allowed to enter the Chamber without going through the body scanning machine, asserting that it was compulsory for all.
“All strangers who intend to come in, whether to the public gallery, or to the press gallery, or to the important visitors’ gallery are all to pass through the scanning machine,” he reiterated.
“It’s for your own good that we want to implement this rule. So please, starting from tomorrow, any person who is not willing to pass through this machine will definitely not be allowed to enter this chamber,” he declared.
It comes after the Marshal’s Office issued a directive to forbid journalists from entering the Chamber with their smartphones, raising issues of national security as the reason.
The move is to prevent media practitioners from using a phone with the ability to take pictures, record videos and access the internet.
“All members who intend to enter the Chamber of Parliament are to pass through that equipment.
“I repeat, it is compulsory for all members, including me, the Speaker, to pass through the machines to be scanned before you enter the Chamber of Parliament,” he stressed.
“I passed through this morning. It is very easy; very comfortable and if you want to see, it can be shown to you,” the Speaker intimated.
BY Ernest Kofi Adu