Party MP for Hamilton West yesterday.

But party leader Mr. Frederick Wade rejected the offer saying "we stand with him 100 percent.'' Mr. Hall's offer came hours after the Court of Appeal set aside a Supreme Court injunction against publication of transcripts used to convict Dexter Dillas last October on drug smuggling charges.

"He tendered his resignation as a good politician would do and I refused as a good leader would do,'' Mr. Wade said.

The party leader said Mr. Hall offered his resignation because of "what was happening to him with the publication'' of the transcript.

Mr. Wade said Mr. Hall told him he didn't want to become the cause of the PLP losing voter support.

"This is what would happen in other countries when a person is having difficulties with the media,'' he said. "I refused. I rejected it because he is a valuable member of our party.

"We stand shoulder to shoulder with him in his efforts to clear his name.'' Yesterday's Court of Appeal development was followed by a PLP statement calling for the establishment of a Press Council.

Mr. Wade said the party "has become increasingly wary of how the right of free expression has been subjected to abuses''.

"We repeat our call for an independent and non-partisan Press Council to monitor abuses and to establish rules of fair play and objective coverage of issues of public concern.'' Mr. Wade said "most unpardonable attacks'' were being aimed at MPs and public office candidates on the basis of "scurrilous and ill-founded rumours driven in many cases by a perceived need to maintain the status quo at any cost''.

Some of the attacks came in the form of "slanted articles'', he said, while others were poorly disguised as editorial comment.

"As individuals in the public eye, PLP Members of Parliament and parliamentary candidates do not claim immunity from criticism of their political viewpoints and utterances,'' Mr. Wade said.

"There is grave difference, however, between criticisms in the normal cut and thrust of politics and unabashedly scurrilous and muckraking attacks on the private, personal and/or business lives of public figures.''