KUALA LUMPUR, March 17 — The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) does not impose any restriction on the online media for Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s events but occasionally limits the number of organisations covering them, Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said said.

In a written reply to Kulai MP Teo Nie Ching, the parliamentary affairs minister said this is due to a number of reasons, including limited space, security and to ensure more “focused” media reports.

“PMO does not impose any restriction on online media coverage of the prime minister’s programmes,” Azalina’s parliamentary reply said.

“However, there are times PMO limits the number of media outlets at these programmes for certain reasons.

“This includes limited crowd capacity at the event, security factors and to ensure news reports that are more focused,” she added.

Azalina was responding to Teo who had asked Najib to state if his office bans online media outlets like Malaysiakini, the now shuttered The Malaysian Insider (TMI) and Malay Mail Online from covering his PMO activities, despite having valid media tags issued by the government.

She also asked Najib to state his reasons for the ban.

PMO currently blocks some media agencies from covering certain functions at its premises in Putrajaya.