The conference on “Parliamentary Broadcast” also opened many questions and dilemmas as regards setting up a parliamentary TV channel, but all the participants agreed that the National Assembly’s transparency had considerably improved in the past year.
National Assembly Deputy Speaker Veroljub Arsic said that the committee sittings are public and available to everyone via direct broadcast on the National Assembly website. In addition, Arsic mentioned that public debates are organised and the citizens can keep informed about the work of the supreme legislative body via press releases, the archive, shorthand notes.
National Assembly Secretary General and leader of the Twinning project Jana Ljubicic said that under Nebojsa Stefanovic the Parliament had done a lot to boost its transparency, which was confirmed by the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection Rodoljub Sabic.
Minister of Culture and the Media Ivan Tasovac announced that the MPs would soon be discussing three laws which are to regulate the media sector in Serbia. He said he would have liked it if the debate on them could be broadcast via a parliamentary channel, but even though his Ministry endorses the opening of such a channel, what still needs to be done is asses the technical capacities for it, who the founder would be and how it would be financed. He said that the Ministry supports any innovation which could help keep the citizens better informed and is conducive to increased freedom of thought and speech, as guaranteed by the Constitution.
Deputy Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia Oskar Benedikt also believes that the parliament’s transparency had increased in the previous period, citing the organisation of public debates and making the work of the assembly bodies public as proof of it and adding that the relationship with the independent bodies is better.
Greek Ambassador to Belgrade Constantine Economides said that the Assembly is an important factor on the road to the EU, saying that parliamentary work needs to be transparent so that, among other things, the public could be informed about the process of European integration.
Andreas Koskinidis and Panos Kouanis of the Hellenic Parliament, Hellenic Parliament TV news editor-in-chief Alexia Koulouri, Controller of BBC Parliament Peter Knowles and LCP Assemblée nationale communication director Virginie Nicolle talked about their experiences of parliamentary broadcast. Head of the Europe by Satellite Department Simona Pilko shared the experience of video broadcast and work of the parliamentary channel at the European Commission, while the Head of EUROPARL TV George Kasimatis spoke about the experience at the European Parliament. Deputy Editor-in-chief of RTS Bojan Brkic spoke about the broadcasting of National Assembly sessions.