Former Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller is insisting that no member of the media made formal requests for sit-down interviews with her during her term in office that ended in February.
But even as she was being adamant, Simpson Miller admitted that she made no checks with her former media handlers at the Office of the Prime Minister to determine if they had in fact received requests for interviews.
“I never asked the people at the office whether or not, but I know that if the request had come in,” Simpson Miller said during a press conference Monday, “it would have been brought to my attention.”
Asked by a reporter if she was sticking with her assertion that no requests for media interviews were made in light of the fact that she made no checks to find out, Simpson Miller said: “I am sticking to that.”
Simpson Miller was heavily criticised last week after media reports contradicted her comments in a radio interview that no request was made for sit-down interviews with her.
In the media reports that contradicted her statement, details were given as to the dates requests were made and the various responses from the Office of the Prime Minister dating over a four-year period.
Simpson Miller had been criticised for not giving interviews to the media.
But on Monday, she said that she has never refused to answer questions from reporters who stop her outside Parliament.
