Parliament committee to discuss web-tv broadcasts of debates

The move comes in the wake of repeated calls by Nationalist MP Franco Debono who stressed that apart from radio broadcasts, parliament should also be visually broadcasted to the people.

MaltaToday is informed that Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi has written to Speaker Michael Frendo and asked him to proceed with discussions that would lead to parliamentary sittings being broadcast by webcam.

Sources said that webcam is the closest parliament can get at this point in time to broadcast sittings, given that manning a fully-fledged Parliament TV channel would turn out to be costly, especially given that the government is in the process of building a new Parliament House as part of the Renzo Piano City Gate project.

While television facilities are reportedly being featured in the designs for the new House, MP Franco Debono has expressed satisfaction that things are moving for video broadcast debates.

“I strongly believe that apart from radio broadcasts, our parliament deserves to have its sittings visually broadcast. This way we can also bring parliament closer to the people,” he said.

However Debono also says that video broadcasts of sittings will also serve to make MPs more aware of their responsibility to attend sittings.

“I am sick and tired of attending sittings without quorums and worse during adjournment I am usually alone and speaking to a wall,” he says.

The House Business Committee will now discuss the way forward to install the web cameras, while a contractor is expected to be engaged to install the software to update parliament’s website to enable web tv.