Another step forward on modernising Parliament’s YouTube rules

The Guardian reports of more progress for Jo Swinson’s campaign to allow footage from Parliament to be put on YouTube and other video streaming sites:

A ban on broadcasting video clips of the proceedings of the House of Commons on YouTube could come to an end in the coming weeks after months of delicate negotiations between the Palace of Westminster and broadcasters led by the BBC.

Existing rules forbid YouTube or any other website, such as a newspaper’s, from embedding any clips of parliamentary proceedings – meaning that the only way to watch parliament online is via the news clips from the major broadcasters, live on the BBC’s Parliament channel or the Westminster website…

Jo Swinson, the Liberal Democrat MP for Dumbarton East, has long campaigned for the ban to be relaxed. “The situation is absolutely nuts. What we are told is that officials are concerned about video being taken out of context or abused – but you can do that with the text of Hansard if you wanted, so the ruling is not consistent.”

You can read the full story here and back Jo Swinson’s campaign on Facebook here.