PARLIAMENT AND DEMOCRACY - Inter-Parliamentary Union

More documents

Recommendations

Info

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
58 I PARLIAMENT AND DEMOCRACY IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY Parliament and senior officials as well as infomercials. Much of the material is produced in all the official languages and is broadcast nationally on twelve SABC radio service stations. The total audience for the radio project for the 2002/3 financial year was 35 million. As it happens, TV sets are widely available in South Africa, but people still look to radio as their main source of information about public affairs. This suggests the continuing importance of radio for parliaments even in those countries with extensive TV ownership. Parliamentary websites Almost all parliaments now have their own websites, including a public Internet site to keep citizens abreast of parliamentary proceedings and to provide a record of legislation and, in many cases, an internal site for improving communication with their members. The National Congress of Ecuador, for example, has established an easily searchable electronic database of all legislation passed since 1979, with details of the debates and votes that took place on each. Websites offer not only a more effective means of accessing information, but interactive possibilities also, as this submission from the Congress of Chile illustrates: It appears that information technology lends itself to giving an electronic impetus to democracy, insofar as unlimited access to legislative information and the interactive nature of parliamentary websites make the legislative process and parliamentary procedures more transparent and leave them subject to closer public scrutiny. Our Website is equipped with tools that make it possible for users to pose questions, send comments, take part in discussion forums and opinion surveys and subscribe to newsgroups according to their personal preferences, etc., all of which brings «electronic democracy» within our reach. This could change traditional notions of democratic institutions and the role played by citizens. Since these sites mostly share very similar objectives and features, it will be useful here to summarise the IPU’s own guidelines on good practice for parliamentary websites, published in 2000, which was the result of a systematic survey of practice at that time among member parliaments. These are its main recommendations for content etc. under each of a number of headings:
Page 1 and 2:
PARLIAMENT AND DEMOCRACY IN THE TWE
Page 3 and 4:
ii I PARLEMENTS ET DÉMOCRATIE AU 2
Page 5 and 6:
iv I PARLIAMENT AND DEMOCRACY IN TH
Page 7 and 8:
vi I PARLIAMENT AND DEMOCRACY IN TH
Page 9 and 10:
viii I PARLIAMENT AND DEMOCRACY IN
Page 11 and 12:
x I PARLIAMENT AND DEMOCRACY IN THE
Page 13 and 14:
xii I PARLIAMENT AND DEMOCRACY IN T
Page 15 and 16:
2 I PARLIAMENT AND DEMOCRACY IN THE
Page 17 and 18:
4 I PARLIAMENT AND DEMOCRACY IN THE
Page 19 and 20: 6 I PARLIAMENT AND DEMOCRACY IN THE
Page 21 and 22: 8 I PARLIAMENT AND DEMOCRACY IN THE
Page 23 and 24: 10 I PARLIAMENT AND DEMOCRACY IN TH
Page 26 and 27: 2. A representative parliament The
Page 28 and 29: Electoral systems A representative
Page 30 and 31: A representative parliament I 17 se
Page 32 and 33: Election rules and procedures to en
Page 34 and 35: A representative parliament I 21 Th
Page 36 and 37: A representative parliament I 23
Page 38 and 39: A representative parliament I 25 ge
Page 40 and 41: A representative parliament I 27 Fu
Page 42 and 43: Foreign Affairs in the Norwegian St
Page 44 and 45: A representative parliament I 31 Th
Page 46 and 47: A representative parliament I 33 ca
Page 48 and 49: A representative parliament I 35 re
Page 50 and 51: ment to following through a process
Page 52 and 53: A representative parliament I 39 An
Page 54: A representative parliament I 41 In
Page 69: 56 I PARLIAMENT AND DEMOCRACY IN TH
Page 82 and 83: 4. An accessible parliament The pre
Page 84 and 85: ■ the fixed office; An accessible
Page 86 and 87: ■ collaborating with NGOs in loca
Page 88 and 89: An accessible parliament I 75 Nowad
Page 90 and 91: ned against excessive reductions in
Page 92 and 93: An accessible parliament I 79 Furth
Page 94 and 95: An accessible parliament I 81 estab
Page 96 and 97: Extract from handbook on ‘Making
Page 98 and 99: An accessible parliament I 85 This
Page 100 and 101: ■ a public record available on li
Page 102 and 103: An accessible parliament I 89 The N
Page 104 and 105: case in Switzerland, the country wi
Page 106: An accessible parliament I 93 since
Page 113 and 114: 100 I PARLIAMENT AND DEMOCRACY IN T
Page 121 and 122:
108 I PARLIAMENT AND DEMOCRACY IN T
Page 123 and 124:
Page 125 and 126:
Page 128 and 129:
An effective parliament (I): The na
Page 130 and 131:
Where parliaments lack capacity thr
Page 132 and 133:
that the Senate, the House of Commo
Page 134 and 135:
Page 136 and 137:
consideration of a bill more effect
Page 138 and 139:
National Assembly is currently in t
Page 140 and 141:
Page 142 and 143:
Page 144 and 145:
Page 146 and 147:
Oversight through parliamentary que
Page 148 and 149:
Page 150 and 151:
A case-study of oversight: security
Page 152 and 153:
Anti-terrorist legislation An effec
Page 154 and 155:
Page 156 and 157:
Page 158 and 159:
Page 160 and 161:
Page 162 and 163:
Page 164 and 165:
Page 168 and 169:
An effective parliament (II): Parli
Page 170 and 171:
Page 172 and 173:
Page 174 and 175:
Page 176 and 177:
Page 178 and 179:
Japan’s ODA is effectively reachi
Page 180 and 181:
Page 182 and 183:
Page 184 and 185:
Page 186 and 187:
Page 188 and 189:
Page 190 and 191:
Page 192 and 193:
Page 194 and 195:
Page 196 and 197:
8. Facing the future Facing the fut
Page 198 and 199:
Figure 8.1: Sources of Parliamentar
Page 200 and 201:
Facing the future I 187 State: give
Page 202 and 203:
and also to allow for increased par
Page 204 and 205:
strengthening of both legislative a
Page 206 and 207:
As regards the practicability and c
Page 208 and 209:
3. Technology assessment. This has
Page 210 and 211:
Australia Austria Belarus Belgium B
Page 212 and 213:
Organization’s programmes aimed a
Page 214 and 215:
MS. MARTA LAGOS CRUZ-COKE Executive
Page 216 and 217:
MS. DULCE MARIA SAURI RIANCHO Membe
Page 218 and 219:
Commonwealth Parliamentary Associat
Page 220 and 221:
Non-governmental organisations Cent
Page 222 and 223:
Index Note: Page numbers in bold in
Page 224 and 225:
types of, 8, 15-17, 69 voter partic
Page 226 and 227:
Myanmar, 176 Namibia, 77, 110 Natio
Page 228:
Sweden, 63, 75, 110, 112, 165 gende
show all

PARLIAMENT AND DEMOCRACY - Inter-Parliamentary Union

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?