All parliamentary groups except PP and Vox initiate the modification of the Congress Regulation to “establish rules of coexistence and guarantee the work of information professionals”, according to the parliamentary sources consulted. The text, signed by PSOE, add, ERC, Junts, Bildu, PNV, BNG and Canarian coalition and to which Podemos has also announced its adhesion, according to those same sources, it collects for the first time some rules so that the media can develop their work “based on deontological and respect criteria”.
Specifically, it is the reform of article 98, promoted by the working groups that established the presidency of the Congress and that responds to the request for regulation expressed by hundreds of professionals who do their work in the Chamber’s offices every day. The text of the proposition, to which Eldiario.es has had access, includes a sanctioning regime that distinguishes between minor, serious and very serious infractions that can lead from warnings to the final withdrawal of the credential.
In that proposal, they are raised as minor infractions: the omission of information required in the application of the credential and access to common spaces of the parliamentary enclosure outside those bounded for the representatives of the media without the mandatory authorization.
As serious infractions: the inclusion of false information in the application of the credential, the recording of images or audios without the authorization of the camera or outside the spaces enabled for this, access to reserved spaces, such as offices or meeting areas, of the parliamentary enclosure outside those bounded for representatives of the media without the mandatory authorization; interrupt the order of the press conferences or other meetings of the members of the Chamber with the representatives of the media; the publication in media and social networks of images obtained against the applicable regulations; any other behaviors that harm the activity of the Chamber or the work of other media representatives.
Among the infractions stipulated as very serious, meanwhile, are detailed: the lack of respect or the courtesy rules in front of other people within the parliamentary enclosure and access areas to it. “In any case, a very serious infraction will be considered insults, disqualifications or attempt against the dignity of other people within the Chamber and in the accesses to it,” it is indicated.
They will also be very serious infractions “the recording of images or audios through the use of hidden devices or in the offices of the members of the camera and in the areas reserved for parliamentary groups and the recording of images or sounds without the authorization of the camera or outside the spaces enabled for it that contains personal data or violates the intimacy of people.”
The sanctioning regime details that mild infractions will be sanctioned with a warning and, where appropriate, a suspension of the credential of up to ten business days. That serious infractions will be sanctioned with a suspension of the credential between ten days and three months. And that very serious infractions will be sanctioned with a suspension of the credential between three months and five years or, where appropriate, with the definitive revocation of the credential.
The proposition of reform of the Regulation of the Congress, which also includes the creation of a Parliamentary Communication Advisory Council, undertakes to “regulate the procedure for the concession and renewal of credentials to the graphic and literary representatives of the different media and will establish the requirements that are enforceable according to the need to respect the right to truthful information and the proper functioning of the Chamber”. Although these requirements are not detailed in the text, it is noted that “it will be taken into account, in any case, the existence of previous violations of the provisions of this article, as well as the guidelines and agreements of the table.”
At the end of February, dozens of media professionals from any ideology or editorial line demonstrated to the gates of Congress to demand the implementation of measures that guarantee the development of their professional activity with full guarantees, as always happened until the granting of accreditations to the salary agitators of Ultras Internet portals. “The journalists who work in Congress suffer disqualifications, insults and accusations by accredited people who work with us and do not respect elementary rules of coexistence. They even threaten us to publicize our homes,” said spokesmen of the Association of Parliamentary Journalists during the reading of a statement.
In that same statement, politicians were given duties by alerting “the need for the tables of the Congress and the Senate to adopt the necessary measures to avoid unacceptable behaviors in the exercise of journalism, without this entail, at all, limit, restrict or underminate the right of the media to obtain and disseminate truthful information for citizens”.
Actually, the Congress table has been working for months. After numerous meetings with different associations of journalists to learn firsthand their demands, (with the association of parliamentary journalists and with the FAP Pp), which has addressed the need to promote a reform of the regulation that includes a regulation of the exercise of the media in the Congress of Deputies that until today did not exist.
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