Following the
regrettable incident on Thursday 18th April when a
journalist was thrown of a meeting of Thanet District Council for trying to
film the disgraceful behaviour of councillors, and following my own exclusion
from the same meeting for taking photographs of the unacceptable events, I have
been giving careful consideration as to how I will manage the meeting of Thanet
Council’s Overview and Scrutiny and Panel on 23rd April which will also be discussing the Pleasurama Petition
I have decided that
in line with Council rules to allow all accredited journalists to film
proceeding of the OSP.
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| TEMPERS FRAY AT COUNCIL MEETING LAST WEEK I WAS THROWN OUT FOR RECORDING THIS |
I will therefore
allow anyone who advises me that they are citizen journalist to record the
proceedings of Thanet Council’s OSP without obstruction.
This decision is in
compliance with a letter sent to all Council Leaders and Chief Executives by
Bob Neil, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State Department for
Communities and Local Government in February 2011 which states that in order to
promote stronger local accountability the public should be “able to
film and record in meetings without obstruction”.
Mr Neil’s letter also
suggests that Thanet Council’s recent decision to throw myself and Christine
Tongue out the Council meeting last week was wrong. He says that
“recent stories about
people being ejected from council meetings for blogging, tweeting or filming …
is at odds with the fundamentals of democracy and I want to encourage all councils
to take a welcoming approach to those who want to bring local news stories to a
wider audience”.
I am very surprised
that the Chief Executive and Leader of the Council have never brought Mr Neil’s
important letter to the attention of the Council. This is a very serious
mistake on their part.
I am also extremely
surprised that the forthcoming review of the Council’s Probity and Reputation
following the gaoling of ex-Council Leader Sandy Ezekiel for misconduct in
public office and the on-going problems with councillor behaviour at meetings,
does not include any reference at all to the recording of public meetings. I
wonder what the powers that be at Thanet Council have to hide?”
My decision to adopt
a liberal and open approach to the recording of the OSP will I hope, be a step
in the right direction, and I expect the Council to be supportive of my
decision
The meeting is on 23 April 7pm Pierremont Hall Broadstairs.
FOR BOB NEIL'S LETTER FOLLOW THE LINK
The councillors of TDC are a disgrace. For years they have been able to behave like overgrown school children, safe in the knowledge that only a handful of people turn up to council meetings; those people aren't allowed to film or record proceedings and the local press won't publish anything critical because, in the absence of any investigative journalists,they need the council to feed them stories. All council meetings should be filmed and the footage and transcripts should be available on the internet.
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