Axe Parliament’s YouTube ban: back Jo Swinson’s campaign

Jo Swinson (Liberal Democrat MP for East Dunbartonshire) has launched a campaign to overturn the ban imposed by Parliamentary authorities on putting up footage on YouTube or other video streaming sites.

Although MPs are allowed to take footage of the House of Commons in action and put it on their own website, they are not allowed to put that footage on YouTube or similar sites.

Which raises a range of problems, not helped by the rules not being that clear or consistent. As a result: footage isn’t put in front of as large an audience as possible.

Jo Swinson says:

I personally think that the more people see what goes on in Parliament, the better, which is why I am pushing for the rules to be changed. There may be copyright issues involved, and if so these should be re-examined at with a view to making Parliament as accessible as possible.

In some sections of society YouTube is watched more widely than television. We have BBC Parliament and some online hosting on MPs’ own websites, but why stop there?

This is fundamentally an issue about Parliament reforming itself to keep up-to-date with modern technology.

UPDATE: Success!