In an effort to appear focused, Prime Minister Stephen Harper is tightening the leash on his cabinet ministers and top bureaucrats by restricting what they can say to the public, a report says.

The Globe and Mail says Harper has ordered them to say nothing to the media unless it is first cleared by the Prime Minister's Office.

"PMO will have final approval for all communications products -- even Notes to Editors or Letters to the Editor," an e-mail sent to bureaucrats states.

Harper is determined to keep the focus on five key Tory campaign issues and any comments straying from those campaign points must be first cleared by him, the Globe reports.

"Maintain a relentless focus on the five priorities from the campaign. Reduce the amount of ministerial/public events that distract from the five priority areas identified in the campaign," the Globe quotes the e-mail as saying.

CTV's David Akin said reporters "don't really have access" to cabinet ministers anymore.

"The most famous example is probably early on in the Harper government," Akin told Canada AM Friday.

Akin said International Trade Minister David Emerson, who caused controversy when he crossed the floor, last month kept reporters waiting for up to 25 minutes for a telephone press conference.

"And then the operator came on and said he was caught in a traffic jam," Akin said.

"It was a traffic jam between the second and third floor of the office where he works. That's one of the most odd examples of this new attitude of the PMO."

Orders

The orders indicate that ministers have been told to avoid talking about the direction of the government, and that the government wants them to be less accessible to the media.

"In order to keep a grip on such events (those that distract from priority areas), PMO will approve of all ministerial events."

The five Tory campaign priorities include a GST cut, a child-care allowance, tougher criminal sentences, a patient waiting-times guarantee and a Federal Accountability Act.

The e-mail summarizes a briefing that the federal government's top bureaucrat -- Clerk of the Privy Council Kevin Lynch -- gave to communications officials in several government departments last week.

The e-mail was written by a senior bureaucrat who attended the meeting.

Government officials and Conservatives later confirmed the instructions, the Globe says.

The instructions appear to reflect caution from the Conservatives, who are trying to differentiate their government from the former Liberal government in an attempt to appear tightly focused.

The Liberals were often criticized for having scattered objectives.

Since they were sworn in on Feb. 6, Tory cabinet ministers have generally refused to grant interviews to reporters, providing only terse and often vague responses to questions outside cabinet meetings.

Last week, the Prime Minister's Office asked officials to remove the microphones that have for decades been set up in hallways outside cabinet meetings.

When press gallery officials intervened, Harper's press secretary -- Carolyn Stewart-Olsen -- said the issue would be discussed with gallery representatives.

Harper's spokesman -- Dimitri Soudas -- refused to comment Thursday on the e-mail's details, the Globe added.