PARLIAMENT AND DEMOCRACY - Inter-Parliamentary Union

To take another example, the Indian Parliament has offered this comment
on the significance of extending the broadcasting of its proceedings:
Telecasting and broadcasting parliamentary proceedings lead to first
hand political education of the common people. Constituents now
have the opportunity of seeing for themselves the role being played
by their elected representatives in ventilating their grievances……On
14 December 2004, two separate dedicated satellite channels for telecasting
live the entire proceedings of Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha
nationwide were launched by the Vice-President of India and the speaker,
Lok Sabha, respectively……The Question Hour proceedings of
both the Houses are also broadcast live on the All India
Radio……ensuring their wider reach across the length and breadth
of the country.
The importance of radio broadcasting for countries or communities where
ownership of TV sets is low should not be underestimated. As table 3.1 shows,
radio is the most important source of information for countries in Africa.
However, these regional figures hide some quite marked differences between
individual countries. For example, where TV is the main source of information
for 92 per cent of the population in Indonesia, this falls to just 2 per cent
in Uganda. In African countries, therefore, measures to expand radio coverage
of parliamentary proceedings are particularly important. In Botswana, for
example, this has been done in a number of ways:
■ Live broadcasts daily while parliament is sitting
A parliament that is open and transparent I 57
■ Press briefings on the agenda before parliament as a news item
■ Regular broadcast interviews with Ministers, in which the public can
submit questions directly
■ Introduction of the vernacular language for parliamentary debates and
official documents.
The report from the Republic of South Africa has this to say about its own
radio project:
The radio project, which aims to educate and inform the public of what
happens in Parliament, how laws are made and how citizens are participating
in law-making processes, has become the most important
means of communicating with the South African public. The project
comprises pre-recorded docudrama series, interviews with Members of