A Canadian Conservative MP has asked for an end to medium-wide camera shots in the broadcasts of Parliament on Friday afternoons. Fridays are when many MPs travel to their home ridings (districts) and Parliament empties out. The medium-wide shots used by Parliamentary broadcasts reveals a largely empty House of Commons. Worried about how bad this looked, Conservative MP Tom Lukiwski chaired a committee to revise the broadcast rules, and asked the CIO’s office to end medium-wide shots, because it reflected badly on Parliament. The CIO turned him down.
Tom Lukiwski said he has heard concerns from colleagues that the empty seats picked up on camera make politicians look bad. “That kind of concerns a lot of members that it frankly doesn’t look good for Parliament,” he said. Friday is usually a light day in the House, as many MPs vacate Ottawa to return to their constituencies. A House of Commons committee reviewing the broadcasting rules this week heard from Parliament’s chief informa-tion officer, who said wide-angle shots have been permitted since 1992 to provide some context for viewers at home. “You are on camera,” Louis Bard told the committee. “If I have to focus on the chair and the member behind is sleeping, there’s not much I can do.”
Conservative MP worried empty seats make the House of Commons look bad
(via As It Happens)