Banned

Margaret Wilson has banned TV3's cameras from Parliament for a week as revenge for showing images of David Benson-Pope in his role as Minister of forty winks. Which I think illustrates more than ever why the standing orders banning such filming have to go. Our ability to hold our politicians accountable for their actions depends on our being able to know what those actions actually are; punishing media organisations which show MPs in a less-than-flattering light is an explicit attempt to prevent this. If we value our democracy, we must stand up for the media's right to show our elected representatives as they actually are, rather than as they would prefer us to see them.

If you'd like to express your disapproval of this decision, then please email the Speaker and let her know. Presumably that's not against the Standing Orders... yet.