Reforming Political Reporting (You Can Lead a Horse to Water)

There's a bit of a debate on Tom Watson's site about reforming the way Parliament is reported, to make it easier for bloggers and others to cover the stories the Lobby has missed.

If you're interested in this, you might consider giving Tom the benefit of your advice, as he's the guy that's going to stick up for you in the Commons (I'm sure he'll thank me).

I don't disagree with his basic thesis - which is, I think, that there's a lot of important stuff going on in British politics that the traditional media, and particularly the national media, never cover.

As he's good enough to say in a comment, local and regional media do pay more attention to some of the issues (eg, NHS provision in Cornwall, or wherever) which he has in mind.

But I'm not sure what sort of reforms he is calling for to correct this.

As I have said before, the Lobby is nothing more than the reporters employed by media organisations to report on politics.

The reason other journalists don't come to Lobby briefings isn't because some arcane rules ban them - it's because they are transport or football correspondents, not political correspondents.

When politicians or special advisers give anonymous briefings to journalists, they are not giving them to the Lobby - just to the particular journalists they choose to talk to.

Inviting bloggers to Lobby briefings, or streaming them on a website, won't have any effect at all on anonymous briefings, which are something separate.

Furthermore, there is nothing to prevent bloggers, or anyone else, from reporting on Parliament right now.

It's streamed live on parliamentlive.tv, which also has an archive of previous debates and select committee meetings, it's available on Hansard and a mashed-up version of Hansard is available on theyworkforyou.com.

Some people are making good use of that - Tom has highlighted Ispystrangers.org. Maybe more bloggers will do so in future. And if it can be made even easier than at the moment, that's a good thing.

But if only a few are reporting on Parliament at the moment, it's not because there's anything stopping them.

                   

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (4)

Richard Morris, June 23, 2009

You mean I could just turn up, without accreditation of any kind, wander around, go to press conferences and briefing etc etc? Or do I have to be 'invited'?

...

Jonathan Walker, June 23, 2009

If I meant that I probably would have said it.

I'm not sure what press conferences you are talking about or where you hope to wander around.

Generally, the chances of you turning up at a press conference organised by a politician or political party and just wandering in are roughly equal to those of you turning up at Villa Park and getting into a press conference with Martin O'Neill, but it's nothing to do with mythical arcane rules.

If you read my post, I say that "lobby reporters" are "nothing more than the reporters employed by media organisations to report on politics". I didn't say they were guys who wandered in off the street.

...

Richard Morris, June 25, 2009

Sorry - not clear. I meant 'as a blogger'. Reporting from the tv is not the same as being there in person - otherwise you could do it from Birmingham. I'm guessing the print lobby wouldn't welcome bloggers in person?

...

Jonathan Walker, June 25, 2009

Ah, sorry.

I'm not sure what would happen if someone like Paul Staines (Guido) or Ian Dale, or Adrian Goldberg, wanted to attend. My guess is that anyone running a larger site would be welcome, although I'm sure there would also be some moaning about it. There are representatives of "new media" there already, such as Politics Home and (I think) politics.co.uk, although they are not generally seen as blogs.

You'd need a Commons pass, as lobby briefings are held in the Commons and Downing Street (a Commons press pass will get you into Downing Street), so it partly depends on who the Commons authorities are willing to hand out passes to. This is why I say only larger sites might be welcome, as they're not going to want to hand out hundreds and hundreds.

So the real answer is that I don't know, and couldn't really know until someone from a blog said they wanted to attend. I suspect some bloggers would prefer not to ask as being excluded gives them far more credibility

By the way, most press conferences at Westminster are simply organised by government departments or the political parties and are not lobby briefings. House of Commons press conferences (for example, a select committee launching a report) are not lobby briefings. However, some of these are held in the Commons, so the issue of getting a pass remains.

http://www.walkerjon.com

Write comment

Name

Email (required but not shown)

Website (optional)

smaller | bigger

Subscribe via email (registered users only)

Add Comment

Journalism