There have been numerous calls over the years for our Parliamentary sessions to be live-streamed, allowing Singaporeans to watch the political debates as and when they happen.
On Friday (4 Sep), Minister for Communications and Information (MCI) S Iswaran announced that the government has agreed “in principle” for such proceedings to be broadcast live.
Announcing the move, Minister Iswaran said the government hopes to attain “transparency, accountability, and accessibility” through the live proceedings, all while retaining its “integrity and dignity”, reports Channel NewsAsia.
While the government has agreed on the move “in principle”, Minister Iswaran said his Ministry is still working on the details on how it will be implemented. These will be announced soon.
The issue of live-streaming parliament proceedings has been brought up numerous times over recent years.
Just this May, Dr Michele Khoo, Minister Grace Fu’s Press Secretary, said that the government has no plans on broadcasting Parliament sittings live.
Dr Khoo added that doing so does not add to the existing transparency, but might instead turn Parliament into a “form of theatre“.
Minister Iswaran said that the government still has such reservations on live-streaming parliament sessions.
However, he noted that technological advances have made live-streaming “commonplace” and that other legislatures around the world are already using it to broadcast their proceedings.
While it remains to be seen what the effects are of live-streaming our Parliamentary proceedings, we hope the move would be a positive one that would make Singaporeans more interested and aware of the debates that happen in Parliament.
What are your thoughts on the move? Share them in the comments below.
Featured image adapted from Facebook.
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