CONFERENCE ON PARLIAMENTS, PARLIAMENTARY TV CHANNELS AND PUBLIC BROADCASTERS IN GENEVA
The Inter-Parliamentary Union, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and the Association of Secretaries General of Parliaments (ASGP) will hold a joint conference on the relationship between parliaments, parliamentary TV channels and public broadcasters, on Thursday 19 October 2006 at the Centre international de Conférences de Genève (CICG), the day after the close of the 115th IPU Assembly. Among the participants are Jean-Pierre Elkabbach, President Director General of Public-Sénat (France) and Terry Murphy, Vice-President of C-SPAN (United States) who have recently signed a partnership agreement to strengthen cooperation between the two television channels.
"The relationship between parliaments, parliamentary channels, public broadcasters and the citizen is an issue of growing importance everywhere, but it is also a complex one. The media outlets are independent institutions that exercise editorial control over the content of their broadcasts while parliaments are institutions that have a legitimate interest in broadcasters informing the public about their work, an interest which needs to be respected", said IPU President, Mr. Pier Ferdinando Casini, former Speaker of the Italian Chamber of Deputies.
Some parliaments have established their own radio stations or TV channels that transmit directly to the public, but more frequently parliaments rely on public broadcasting through public service stations or simply public broadcasters. "In recent years, a number of new media outlets have emerged, using the internet or the digital environment to offer the public insights into parliamentary proceedings. This is an area of interest to EBU", declared its Secretary General, Mr. Jean Réveillon.
The October Conference will explore the relationship between parliaments and parliamentary channels and/or public broadcasters and try to identify positive examples that may serve as an inspiration for others. It could be the start of a larger process of sharing experiences and materials between parliamentary TV channels and public broadcasters.
Some 150 participants, including members of parliaments who sit on committees that oversee parliamentary outreach to the broader public, senior representatives of public broadcasters, parliamentary channels and secretaries general of parliaments, have confirmed their participation. The Conference will be open to the press.
Established in 1889 and with its Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, the IPU, the oldest multilateral political organisation, currently brings together 146 affiliated parliaments and seven regional assemblies as associate members. The world organisation of parliaments has an Office in New York, which acts as its Permanent Observer at the United Nations.
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