Editor,

I am a local journalist who has been reporting on parliament for the last five years. Allow me to criticize both Chambers of parliament for not considering the media as an important facet of the Rwandan political landscape.

Currently, both Chambers of parliament have no press gallery and journalists are always sent to the public gallery.

I recently asked why the Parliament doesn’t have a special place for the media and I was told that the media used to occupy the VIP quarters but they had to be thrown out to the public gallery because BBC once used the facilities in the VIP section and recorded a session which it aired.

This made me wonder if journalists are not supposed to record a parliamentary session; I went through all the internal regulations of the parliament but there was nothing that referred to it.

Sitting in the public gallery should not be an issue but the problem is, a journalist sitting in the public gallery can not record everything or see the expressions on the faces of the MP’s because of the great distance.

Dear Madam Speaker, allow me to kindly request you to secure a place in the chambers where journalist can see the faces of MPs and record them as well.

Concerned journalist.