The Journalists Union on Wednesday slammed the agriculture minister for instructions she issued earlier where she appeared to order all ministry personnel to go through her press office when speaking to the media.
In a statement, the union called Maria Panayiotou’s instructions “an anachronism harkening back to times of non-transparency”.
Such practices, it added, were employed in decades past and “as a rule they served suspicious internal procedures to the detriment of the public interest”.
Panayiotou’s instructions to staff, which someone leaked to the media earlier this week, read that “no employee of the ministry of agriculture shall make comments to the media” without the minister’s prior approval.
In addition, any replies to the media would be given in writing only.
Reacting, the journalists’ union stated that “anything that impedes journalists’ access to information held by the public sector, is reprehensible and unacceptable.”
In the meantime the minister herself tried to downplay the affair. In a post on social media, she said the instructions were reported out of context.
But she also conceded that the wording of the instructions – which she did not deny – was unfortunate.
Grigoris Savva, a press officer with the agriculture ministry, told the Cyprus Mail that the instructions amounted to what’s known as an internal memo or circular.
The circular somehow got leaked to the media – perhaps ironic in itself.
“What the ministry is trying to do is actually the opposite of how the incident has been portrayed,” said Savva.
“In fact the ministry wants to enhance coordination among the various departments, to improve interaction with the media…it’s not about control of information.”
And according to the press officer, the language of the instructions was “too strict…that was an error”.
Asked what would happen from now on if a journalist contacted a department of the agriculture ministry seeking information, Savva said it depends.
“If it’s just about factual information, a journalist may of course speak to a ministry employee. If it’s about ministry policy, then the employee must get approval either from the permanent secretary or, as the case may be, from the minister’s office.”
The Cyprus Mail understands that the minister’s instructions were put on paper few weeks ago.
It was not clear what exactly prompted this action.
