New Senate rules put journalists under pressure
Amir Wasim
ISLAMABAD: Journalists covering the opening session of the Senate on Monday can expect a tough time because under the new rules of business, they run the risk of breaching the privilege of Senators if their reporting is viewed as a ‘reflection’ on them or the house.
Journalists covering proceedings of the Senate, its committees and even the working of the Senate secretariat will now have to take extra care because even a little deviation from the dotted line can land them into trouble and they can be summoned by a house committee for committing a breach of privilege.
The new rules unanimously approved by the Senate last week after 24 years contain a number of ambiguous clauses under the amended Rule 71 on “Question of Privilege” through which members can bring any commentative media report under scrutiny if it says anything other than praising what the senators are doing.
A number of Senators, belonging to major parties, agreed that the rules could easily be misused against journalists covering parliament and its committees.
“I think we have overlooked this aspect of the amended rule,” said a senior Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader who was in the committee on the Rules and Privileges that had finalised the draft. “Yes, I agree that these clauses are needed to be reviewed,” the PPP leader said on a condition of anonymity.
Previous Rule 60 was silent on issues that a member can raise while moving a privilege motion and such motions could be used against government servants for disobeying Senators, over non-implementation of decisions of the parliament or committee, against an individual for misbehaving with them or for presenting forged and doctored record or documents before the house or its committees.
But the amended Rule 71 defines 17 issues on which a member can now take matters to the house committee on privileges.
While there can be no dispute on most of conditions, there are at least six issues which require clarity because according to parliamentary and legal experts, these can easily be used to influence the media.
Under new rules, a senator now can “raise a question involving breach of privilege”, if it is based on “speeches or writings reflecting on the house, its committees or members”; “publication of false or distorted reports of debates” and “publication of proceedings of secret sessions”.
It has been a practice worldwide that the media always tries to cover proceedings of in-camera sessions and publishes reports based on quotes of the participants without identifying them.
Last year, the media published detailed reports of the proceedings of an in-camera joint session held after the May 2 Abbottabad operation.
The media also gave a comprehensive coverage to the in-camera proceedings of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security and a similar committee on constitutional reforms that drafted the 18th and 19th amendment bills in 2010.
Similarly, “premature publication of proceedings, evidence or report of a parliamentary committee” now falls within the jurisdiction of breach of privilege.
So if a journalist succeeds in obtaining a report before its presentation in the house or a committee he or she will have to wait till it becomes a public document.
The two most ambiguous clauses of the Rule 71 are “reflection on the report of a parliamentary committee” and “premature publication of various other matters connected with the business of the house”.
Senator Tahir Hussain Mashhadi of the MQM defended the amended rule by saying that the committee had drafted them after reviewing similar rules in parliaments of developed countries.
He said they had adopted these rules from the US, France and Canada where parliament was always considered to be a supreme institution.
Moreover, he said, while drafting these rules members of the committee belonging to all parties had considered various aspects and all of them fully endorsed it.
He said he was confident these rules would not be used against the media.
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