Baboolal: Live TV paints true picture

Baboolal apparently backed House of Representatives Speaker Barry Sinanan’s extension of Parliament’s rules governing its own broadcasts, to private media houses. The rules restrict shots of sleeping MPs.

She said: “Parliamentary proceedings are serious matters for the benefit of the public. Consequently, as members are aware, guidelines exist for the coverage of the debates of the Parliament which seek to encourage the media to cover Parliament responsibly so that citizens have an opportunity to be well informed about the issues affecting their governance.” She noted that the Senate had previously adopted the guidelines produced by two parliamentary Joint Select Committees (JSCs) of 1989 and 2004.

The guidelines, she said, “require that coverage should give an unvarnished account of the proceedings of the House, free of subjective commentary and editing techniques designed to produce entertainment rather than information.” She said such guidelines are not unique to Trinidad and Tobago.

“With ‘live’ Parliament, the era of manufacturing sensationalist sound bites, or the publication of snapshots out of context designed for the purpose of portraying a distorted version of the activities of this Senate, is now truly over,” she said. The public, she noted, will now see and hear everything, and get the full picture of what happens in Parliament.

“Indeed for the very first time, the public will be able to appreciate that quite a lot of work is transacted in this chamber on their behalf.”

Otherwise, three JSC members have publicly stated that the broadcast guidelines were never meant to restrain private media houses.