Media access to Parliam. Committees soon

Parliament’s ‘Oversight Committees’ appointed by the House to monitor various governmental activity will soon allow the news media access to report on their proceedings, Deputy Speaker Thilanga Sumathipala told the Sunday Observer. He added, however, that the news media could not be given ‘blanket access’ to some other committees like Standing Committees and Select Committees appointed for various special purposes.

“For example, in an investigation, when there is information only on one side of the story, there could naturally be an adverse effect on the other party. So we are looking into this at the moment,” the Deputy Speaker told the Sunday Observer yesterday. The Deputy Speaker said that the media should be permitted to have access to certain bodies such as oversight committees. People come on notice and they make their submissions to oversight committees. People from various pressure groups and NGOs also make their submissions. Some investigative process takes place in certain committees such as COPE and PAC. If you prematurely allow the information to go out, that could cause injustice to some people. This is the only issue that has been faced so far by us.

“We have not reached a final decision and we are of the view that all the committees should be opened to parliamentary journalists who are very responsible. But we have to take into account the MPs privileges and also the state officials who may be going through some inquiry or investigation,” he said.

The Standing Orders should be amended to open the proceedings of the parliamentary committees to the media. Until the Standing Orders are amended, there is no provision to this effect. But the Speaker can waive off time according to the circumstances and accommodate the media with the consent of the party leaders.

“At the moment, we are in the process of discussing how far we can engage the media in Sub Committees or committee stage proceedings of Parliament. So the problem is with regard to space and logistics, more than the media access. Broadcasting and telecasting of the parliamentary proceedings will also be included in the Standing Orders. At present, access has been denied to media to cover the COPE and the PAC. We are discussing this issue. The media should be allowed to cover the COPE and PAC proceedings,” he said.