Stature protected

PARLIAMENT notes and welcomes the dismissal of the urgent interim application to compel it to provide broadcast feed of all incidents during House sittings.

As a key custodian of the constitution, Parliament has conducted its business in an open manner, holds its sittings in public and has facilitated public access, including that of the media, to the work of the National Assembly, National Council of Provinces and their committees. The constitution obliges Parliament to do this.

However, the constitution also enables Parliament to take reasonable measures to regulate public access, and states that the public, including the media, may not be excluded from sittings of committees unless it is reasonable and justifiable to do so in an open and democratic society.

In recognition of the important role of the media, Parliament allocates office space to major media houses.

Parliament’s Policy on Filming and Broadcasting – in operation since 2009 – regulates recordings of parliamentary proceedings for public broadcasting that is in the public interest and related to the main business of Parliament. This regulation is also in conformity with acceptable standards of dignity, appropriate behaviour and conduct.

Parliament is a key institution of our constitutional democracy and its stature should be protected. The application to declare the policy unconstitutional – which comes before the Western Cape High Court in April – raises several crucial questions. One is whether – and the extent to which – Parliament should determine how it wishes to project its business. Another is whether Parliament’s constitutional obligation to provide information that is in the public interest is being achieved in terms of the policy.