Open house as Parliament Channel marks 10 years

He said members of the public are invited to book a place on a tour of Parliament being held next Monday, Tuesday and Friday from 9 am to 3 pm.

Further, the public may view a parliamentary expo at the nearby Port-of-Spain Waterfront on Wednesday and Thursday.

People will be able to ask questions and even sit in the seat of an MP.

Elcock said the anniversary will also be marked by the channel’s broadcast of two new programmes, namely the “History of the Parliament Channel” and “Where are they now?”, the latter an examination of the current lifestyles of persons who had been MPs in 2006 when the channel was launched.

He related the recent activities of Parliament staff, including the launch of Parl View on Youtube plus social media accounts, on Facebook and Twitter, saying the former has 14,000 followers. He said new equipment is being set up at Parliament so that if two parliamentary committees are sitting simultaneously, broadcast will be allowed on the Parliament Channel (via cable television) and via the internet.

Elcock related Parliament’s activities over the past year. This including commissioning a company to visit the Parliaments of other Caribbean nations including Jamaica, Grenada and Guyana, to conduct interviews as to how they function, the results being broadcast on the Parliament Channel. The Parliament Channel had aired new programmes such as “The West Indies at war”.

Further, he said that Parliament’s presiding officers - Speaker Bridgid Annsette-George and Senate President Christine Kangalooo - had met young people via the Schools Outreach initiative.

Yesterday’s function also saw the cutting of a cake decorated with the Parliament Channel’s 10th anniversary logo designed by staffer, Maria O’Brien.