PARLIAMENT AND DEMOCRACY - Inter-Parliamentary Union

A parliament that is open and transparent I 45
Cyprus now allows media personnel to attend committee meetings ‘with very
few exceptions’. The Assemblée Nationale of the Cote d’Ivoire, which used
only to permit summaries of its committee meetings to be published, has since
2001 allowed the press to attend and report on all committee proceedings. In
South Africa, committees are open to the public and the media, and can only
be closed after open discussion and with the approval of the Speaker. The
Australian House of Representatives assigns a media advisor to help
committees develop communications and media strategies for their public
enquiries, and to maximise media coverage of committee activities.
This last example raises a consideration that is particularly stressed in a
recent report of the Puttnam Commission in the United Kingdom on
parliamentary communication. This is that, in a busy media world where
competition for news stories is intense, it is no longer enough for parliamentarians
simply to provide information or access, but must themselves take the
initiative in identifying items that are newsworthy for journalists to
pick up on:
Media organisations are much leaner than they used to be, and can no
longer spare journalists to spend their time in the gallery or a committee
room in the hope of coming across a story……While some committees
already receive good coverage for their work by virtue of controversial
subjects, media-savvy chairs or inherent public interest, this is
now being complemented by the work of select committee media officers.
They are now choosing particular reports to push to media outlets
and explaining why the findings are of particular news interest……MPs
need to accept that communication of this sort is not inherently
partisan. (Hansard Society Commission, Members Only?
Parliament in the Public Eye, Hansard Society, 2005)
Many parliaments are simply unable to afford this degree of provision of
media officers. But the training of members themselves, and especially committee
chairs, in media relations and presentation could readily equip them to
take similar initiatives. The Commission’s concept of ‘media-savvy’ chairs is
one that could be generalised.
The same Commission makes a further point about media access, particularly
of television, which is not just relevant to the UK Parliament. This is the
way rules on access can restrict the form of media coverage as well as its
range, and so provide only very dull viewing or reporting in comparison with
other news events: