Ok let me make my intentions of this  post very clear… I wish to make a case for a Parliamentary TV Channel in Sri Lanka.

I for many years have been frustrated with the fact that I have no way of seeing what happens inside the parliament. An ordinary citizen who is supposed to be represented during the workings of the parliament has no easy way of judging if they are truly and sufficiently represented. We simply have a very limited idea if they [politicians] talk gossip inside the parliament or if they adhere to the constitution and to pass laws. Lack of accountability starts when the spread of information fails, if people do not see what happens inside their parliament (or do not have an easy way of seeing), politicians are not under the same pressures to actually account for their actions.

This is not a problem that exists exclusively within the political system of Sri Lanka, but it is a problem that Sri Lanka can and most certainly will benefit by solving it. It’s so called benefits will not be felt overnight in terms of great reductions in corruption and do not be naive enough to expect Mervin Silva to stop swearing when he disagrees too soon. But it will highlight the disgrace of voting for incompetent politicians like Mervin Silva. It will really expose to our Maha Sangha and out people that Mervin Silva is nothing but an opportunist thug turned orator who claims to be an reincarnation of warrior; then they can make up their minds. We must not forget that- “Seeing is believing”.

A parliamentary TV channel in my opinion would force politicians to observe a certain degree of mutual respect for each other and level of sanity even a group of primary school kids can be exposed to. They will know that journalists, bloggers, pundits, political gurus, and citizens of varying influence will have access to visual content of debates and proceedings of parliament. No longer shall the politically keen people of Sri Lanka have to rely on short sound bites of parliamentary proceedings fed to them drop by drop though 8 o’clock express news reels. Instead they have a unedited source of information, broadcasted live.

Maybe the viewers would be quite keen on seeing what different MPs thought of the important issues surrounding the debate about a Sri Lankan homeland security strategy. After watching this debate on the “Sri Lanka Parliamentary Channel”(that’s very unimaginative, I must admit) they can reconsider if they wanted to vote for a particular MP, who’s views they didn’t fancy becoming law.

Watching live debates is admittedly one of the most boring things you can do especially if it’s on tax rates for farm equipments! And without a doubt it is one of those niche channels which most “cool” kids hate, and it probably comes quite close to the bottom spot in ratings after Euotrash dating channels. But when the BBC parliament broadcasted the full proceedings of the select committee inquiry on the “legality of the Iraq war”; Tony Blair being grilled for 6 hours, a very channel that seemed lifeless to many spouted into life…

I have listed down several problems that are likely to be encountered in the journey to start a parliamentary TV channel of Sri Lanka. And for some of those I have tryied to come up

1. Political unwillingness: no solution.
   
2. TV spectrum issues: adopting a live telecast through the parliament.lk website is a simple solution, or free to air satellite will be a better alternative
   
3. Finance: It can be either funded through a consortium of private and state media channels.Or you can have a state funded one, and a private channel(maybe funded by a consortium again..) as the end of the day the state funded one and the private one both will resort to feeding their own viewpoints to us.. Even though this is a wasteful option; I like it…

Here are some links for you to check out.. do be aware the live streaming content may not be available outside eg. NZ, uk etc

http://www.europarltv.europa.eu/

http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Main/Home.aspx

http://news.bbc.co.uk/democracylive/hi/bbc_parliament/default.stm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/playlive/bbc_parliament/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Parliament

http://www.parliament.nz/en-NZ/AboutParl/SeeHear/PTV/