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Live Parliament show on giant screen
The people will be able to watch parliamentary proceedings live on a giant screen to be installed at Jayanthipura in Kotte – as a prelude to live telecasts. The giant screen will be set up at the parliament car park, a senior parliament official said.
Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa who has spoken in support of the live telecast of Parliament proceedings visited the Jayanthipura site this week to see where the giant screen could be installed. A mobile phone operator will sponsor the project. Deputy Speaker Chandima Weerakkody said all parties in Parliament had agreed in principle that proceedings be telecast live but financial constraints and lack of clear policy could delay the move for some time.
He said live radio broadcast of the proceedings is likely before the telecast began. “We will have to incur a big cost to have the live telecast. So the main issue is to find the funding,” he said. House Leader and Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva said the live telecast was a complex issue and certain issues had to be ironed out before a final decision was taken.
Chief Opposition Whip John Amaratunga said the UNP had initiated the latest move to start the live telecast even though it had been discussed for several years. “Having live telecasts will allow people to see for themselves what their elected representatives are doing and it will encourage more participation by legislators in parliamentary work. Millions are spent on Parliament sittings but some ministers are not present to even answer a single question,” Mr. Amaratunga said.
At present, live parliamentary proceedings are shown in the Parliament complex and are uploaded as a webcast in Parliament’s website soon after the speeches are made. The Deputy Speaker said officials had studied how proceedings were telecast live in the Indian Parliament and in Britain’s House of Commons.
He said designating a separate channel for the telecast would be the only option and it could be started when the money was found.
In India, two separate satellite channels have been in operation since 2004 to telecast the entire proceedings of the Lok Sabha (Lower House) and the Rajya Sabha (the Upper House) of Parliament..
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