Media personnel barred from lobby at Parliament (Updated)

KUALA LUMPUR: Parliament speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia has barred media personnel from covering proceedings from the lobby.
Pandikar Amin said the ruling was made after taking into consideration the safety of lawmakers from both sides of the divide.
He ordered the media personnel to provide coverage from the parliament media centre, which is located on the ground floor of the building.
Pandikar Amin said he had been tolerating the presence of media in the lobby since he assumed the speaker's post in 2008.
"There are no other parliaments like Malaysia where ministers coming out after attending proceedings in the chamber were ambushed for interviews," he said.
"I myself am not comfortable. Some of the media personnel are sitting all over the places as if the space is a picnic place," he added.
"For the meantime, this will be my decision ... However, I will make consideration from time to time," he added.
Several opposition members, however, asked Pandikar Amin to reconsider his decision but the speaker stood his ground.
Soon after the announcement was made, parliament security ordered the media personnel to leave the lobby.
This disrupted a press conference by the Kuala Terengganu MP Datuk Raja Kamarul Bahrin Shah and several other opposition members.