Press Gallery 101: The House chats with Jason Walls

By Louis Collins

This time last week, Parliament was gearing up for the Crown Apology for Abuse in State Care.

Coverage focused on what was going to be said and what the Government was going to do to change things.

Among all that coverage was news that Newsroom journalist Aaron Smale had been denied temporary Press Gallery accreditation by the Speaker, citing Smale's "conduct on a prior occasion" as the reason for the denial. Smale had asked the PM some tough questions at a recent post-cabinet press conference.

Simply put, no accreditation equals reduced access to Parliament's debating chamber, and the wider precinct - where the apology and associated events were taking place. Not being able to attend would have made it pretty difficult for Smale to cover something he has been covering exhaustively and impressively for years.

After appeals from the Press Gallery and member organisations (Smale writes for more than one), the decision was eventually reversed at the last minute - with provisos.

The situation invoked discussions about transparency, freedom of the press, and the role of the fourth estate in holding the Government to account.

For many, it probably also invoked the question of 'what is the Press Gallery'?

The term Press Gallery generally refers to the group of journalists from various media who are granted full-time access to Parliament to cover proceedings and access the government. When you watch the 6 o'clock news and a journalist is doing a live cross from Parliament, or questioning a Minister on the black and white tiles, chances are they're in the Press Gallery.

The Press Gallery, other than being a group of journalists, is also a term for two physical locations at Parliament. One, a hallway of mini-newsrooms and offices, each for a different outlet or publication (located on the ground floor of Parliament House); and two, a mezzanine of sorts, situated above the debating chamber, behind the Speaker.

The Press Gallery has two levels of membership - full and associate, both of which are granted by the Press Gallery executive - at least initially.

Chair of the executive Jason Walls explained the application process:

"When I say, 'granted', we approve it and then give it to the Speaker, and the Speaker gives the ultimate 'yea' or the 'nay'. In the vast majority of cases, its 'yea'," Walls said.

"If it's 'nay', it needs to be quite a good reason. And if it's not, there is often some back-and-forth between the press gallery and the Speaker's office.

"But essentially, to be a full member of the press gallery, you need to be working within the press gallery for the vast majority of your time. Basically, your nine-to-five needs to be political reporting within the parliamentary precinct. Associate Members are here not as much. They kind of dip in and out, but you still have access to politicians, whether they're on what we call the 'bridge run' (black and white tiles), which is when Ministers [are on their way] to the House - we just grab them before they come in there, or at various different select committees and things like that."

When you go along and watch a live session of Parliament, you might see the journalists in the chamber, some of whom you recognise from television, all hustling to get their scoop and think it must be a pretty exclusive group. But when you look at the list of who has accreditation, it's surprisingly extensive, with everyone from household names of New Zealand media, to student magazines, and even heavyweight overseas outlets.

"We have the likes of AP, The Guardian, Bloomberg and Reuters - they come in from time to time as well. So it's not just the typical Heralds and TVNZ and RNZ - we are open to other various different entities as well, for example, interest.co.nz - it's a smaller sort of boutique business publication."

So you may be wondering if someone with a microphone and a laptop making podcasts out of their garage can be in the Press Gallery.

Walls says that during his time as Chair, "there have been a number of instances where a number of people have applied, and we just tell them the same thing that we tell 'established media outlets', which is that you have to adhere to our rules.

"There's a set of criteria that you must meet before you're a Press Gallery journalist or your media outlet is accredited. For example, you have to be a member of the Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA) or the Media Council. We think that that is a baseline standard that journalists should have to adhere to before they are granted accreditation in the Press Gallery. So if you've got that, and you meet all of our other criteria, I'm not going to stand in the way of people wanting to come here."

Membership is one thing, but it can only get you so far. Having access to Parliament is useful, but there's a real knack to being a Press Gallery journalist that only comes from spending time in the building, among all the buzz.

"A lot of it is just knowing where to be when the ministers are in a location where you can talk to them," Walls says.

"There are various different places we're allowed to film, or where we're not allowed to approach ministers. But the main source of where we do most of our work is on the black and white tiles you would [see or] hear on the six o'clock news or radio bulletins. That sort of dinging in the background, and that's the sound of the bells, calling the MPs to the House, and essentially that's where we can stop and get them."

Another place the gallery regularly intersects with the government is in the weekly post-cabinet press conferences in the Beehive theatrette.

"The Prime Minister's post-cabinet press conference is a different one. Technically, you're there by invitation of the Prime Minister. There is a very good working relationship between myself and the Prime Minister's Office, which means that I don't have to submit a list of who's coming this week. But technically, you know, he could do that.

"Technically, he could invite somebody along who is not a member of the Press Gallery, but there is a good understanding that it's a place for accredited press gallery reporters to be."

However, that good understanding between government and media hasn't always been well… good. In days gone by, Prime Ministers have disliked some journalists, or found them pesky (or possibly too tough). In 1980, cartoonist Tom Scott was famously booted from one of Robert Muldoon's Press Conferences, because the then- Prime Minister disliked Scott's coverage of him and his Government.

That incident had ramifications for Muldoon, and how he was perceived. It's possible that, had the decision to ban Smale stood, that might also have had impacts, especially in the generally open relationship between the government and media.