What is Newsworthy in Parliament?

No matter how strong the working relationship between parliament and the media is it will not lead to a noticeable increase in the flow of information unless there is something newsworthy for the media to report.  An event or issue becomes newsworthy when it is something that the community needs to know, should know or would be interested in learning.  The newsworthiness of almost any piece of information is always debatable and is dependent on what each individual thinks is important for the community to know.  It has traditionally been up to the media to determine what is newsworthy. Further, the press should always be free to choose about what they report.  This is the definition of an independent media. Parliaments should seek to protect and encourage the press’ freedom to select which issues to cover. 

Citizens have a right to know about the workings of parliament and the media should be committed to assisting citizens to enjoy their ‘right to know’ by providing coverage of parliament.  However, the media are limited in what they are able to cover by what is newsworthy.  In an attempt to make parliamentary business more newsworthy, parliament should provide the media with as much accurate and timely parliamentary information as possible along with ready access to parliament so that the media can determine for themselves what is newsworthy and, in turn, let the community know.

It is important for parliament to ensure that the parliamentary process is also part of any news coverage so as to help build respect in the community for parliament as a democratic institution. Parliamentarians can make the parliamentary process more newsworthy by addressing issues in parliament, and making sure ministerial announcements, whenever possible, are first made in parliament rather than directly to the media.