Review of use of Parliament TV coverage

The closing date for submissions is Wednesday, 16 October 2019

The Standing Orders Committee is considering the rules for how people can use coverage of the House provided by Parliament TV (PTV). The committee invites public submissions on this review, with a closing date of Wednesday 16 October 2019.

Conditions for using PTV coverage are:

1. Any broadcast or rebroadcast of the coverage must comply with the broadcaster's legal obligations.

2. Coverage of proceedings must not be used in any medium for

(a) political advertising or election campaigning (expect with permission of all members shown)

(b) commercial sponsorship or commercial advertising.

3. Reports that use extracts of coverage of proceedings and purport to be summaries must be fair and accurate.

These conditions can be found in Appendix D of the Standing Orders, in Part B (see Related links). The previous rule preventing the use of PTV coverage for the purpose of satire and ridicule was revoked in 2017.

On 26 September 2019, the Speaker gave a ruling about the conditions of use (see Related links for full ruling). The Speaker ruled that “videos that support one party or aim to reduce support for another party” are political advertising. He said that videos posted since the start of 2019 should be removed if they use official PTV footage that has been edited and feature other members without their permission.

The Standing Orders Committee invites submissions about the current conditions for use of PTV coverage, and about the Speaker’s ruling of 26 September 2019.

© Scoop Media