6 July 2007

Greens once again urge Parliament to drop satire ban

Now that the television networks have jointly decided to flout the ban on images that satirise, ridicule or denigrate MPs, the only way forward is to revisit the solution offered over a week ago by the Greens, and drop the ban from the new rules for covering Parliament, Green Party Broadcasting Spokesperson Sue Kedgley says.

"My colleague Nandor Tanczos was the first to admit that the Standing Orders committee to which he belongs had got it wrong - and he sought in vain to move an amendment that would have sent the issue back to the committee and thus allowed them to take this ridiculous piece of censorship out of the coverage rules," Ms Kedgley says.

"At the time, I predicted in the House that the foolhardy ban would only incite more of the coverage that such an attempt at censorship sought to prevent. This prediction has been proven true. It was always patently absurd to try and stop people using publically available images for satirical purposes.

"What Parliament now needs to do is go back to my colleague's amendment, send the whole thing back to the Standing Orders committee and have them rethink their foolish recommendation.

"So far, this episode has served only to heap further ridicule upon Parliament. The way forward now is to revisit Nandor's amendment," Ms Kedgley says.

ENDS

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