Broadcast parliament activities
IT is imperative to make all activities of the parliament transparent to ensure an effective and accountable parliamentary democracy system. Broadcasting of those activities would be helpful in informing the people about the business of the parliament because, after electing the Members of Parliament (MPs), the voters have no idea about what is being done by their representatives.
There are special television and radio channels in many countries to broadcast the activities of their parliaments. For example, in the United States, Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN) is designed to air activities of the House of Representatives (Congress) and the Senate.
C-SPAN also covers proceedings of parliamentary committees and programs related to public affairs. There are several television and radio channels and a website of C-SPAN. Owners of cable companies launched the channel as a non-profit media organisation. It also broadcasts programs related to meetings and press conferences of government and non-government organisations.
Moreover, C-SPAN covers news and events about parliaments and governments of the UK and Canada. The channel is intended to inform people about the activities of the parliament and government, and thus build public opinion. Even though the legislators are responsible to the electorates in the United States and most western countries, by broadcasting activities of senators and congressmen C-SPAN has been playing a very critical role in informing the voters about the performance of elected representatives. The significant feature of C-SPAN is that it also broadcasts not only live sessions but also meetings and hearings of parliamentary committees.
In a parliamentary democracy, parliamentary committees on different subject are imperative. As ministers, secretaries and civil servants of concerned ministries are accountable to the parliament, parliamentary committees are responsible for checking those activities.
Though Bangladesh Television (BTV) broadcasts some sessions of the parliament, it is not a regular practice. Sometimes BTV interrupts this live broadcasting for commercials and other programs.
BTV and the private television channels never broadcast proceedings of meetings of parliamentary committees, but only cover news about those meetings. I think the time has come to broadcast all activities of the parliamentary committees. In doing so, it will be feasible to make parliamentary committees stronger and the concerned ministries more accountable to the parliamentary committees.
To make our democracy and parliamentary system effective, parliament must be the epicenter of politics, administration and every aspect of state affairs. This will not be possible by keeping parliament activities out of reach of general people of the country. If the government takes the initiative to broadcast live sessions and all activities of the parliamentary committees then it would act as a catalyst to make an effective parliament.
Now, the question is whether it will be possible to telecast all sessions and activities of the parliamentary committees live because BTV, the lone state-run television channel, should also broadcast other programs and news.
The government can start a second channel of BTV for this purpose. This channel will broadcast all sessions of the parliament live and also cover meetings of parliamentary committees. If several meetings of parliamentary committees are held at a time, it can cover those meetings also by recording them. I would like to urge the present government to take this issue sincerely as it would fulfill the dream of the people for "days of change."
If the government is concerned about financial limitations in starting a second channel, then I would propose looking for funds from donor agencies. The UNDP has been financing a project for strengthening the parliamentary system of Bangladesh. The government can request them to provide funds for the second channel, that will be mainly focused on activities and proceedings of parliament and public affairs of government, autonomous and, if possible, non-government organisations of Bangladesh.
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