* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Politicians, like film stars and other personalities in our celebrity driven culture, take on an aura that distances them from the rest of us… until election time
Parliament and what goes on there can often appear remote from the lives of ordinary people.
Politicians, like film stars and other personalities in our celebrity driven culture, take on an aura that distances them from the rest of us… until election time!
But put journalists together with some of the personalities who make parliament tick, as a Thomson Reuters Foundation workshop on the Turks and Caicos Islands in the Caribbean did in March 2014, and something interesting starts to happen.
«It's important that the media give democracy a chance to take place on something that is quite contentious,» John Phillips, an appointed member of the British Overseas Territory's House of Assembly, told participants.
Phillips was highlighting the importance of a standing committee review of a broadcasting bill and telecommunications ordinance (law) which is likely to cost households across the islands an extra 12% in cable TV subscriptions.
«I'm trying to see how I can use this to begin the talk show on Monday,» Conrad Howell, host of RTC107FM radio's «Expressions» programme, replied, welcoming the tip.
The role of journalists
Phillips said media coverage of the review, scheduled to begin in three days and likely to last at least four weeks, could encourage ordinary people to join the debate.
The Turks and Caicos are one of three places where Christopher Columbus might have made landfall when he sailed to the Americas in 1492. Britain imposed direct rule in the tourist and zero-tax financial haven in 2009 after a commission of inquiry accused the previous government of corruption.
The parliamentary reporting workshop was one of a series funded by Britain's Foreign and Commonwealth Office to strengthen the role of media on the islands which returned to parliamentary politics after elections in 2012.
Covering the House of Assembly, which sits on the island of Grand Turk, home to the capital, poses particular problems for journalists based a plane ride away on the most populous island of Providenciales. Mostly, they follow proceedings on the radio.
Listening to a debate is one thing, but understanding its likely impact on the lives of ordinary people is something else. That, as journalists attending the workshop discovered, can be more easily understood by talking to legislators in person.
Digging deeper
The standing committee on the broadcasting bill will discuss setting up a broadcasting commission, a new statutory authority.
Such authorities, which include financial services and integrity commissions, are independent from political control or influence. Phillips said this would not change but added that, following criticism of the way that some operate, the standing committee could look at changes in the way they exercise their role.
Journalists from television, radio, print and online media attended the workshop. Participants from parliament included the deputy speaker, the leader of the opposition, the two members of the house appointed by the territory's governor and the clerk and deputy clerk.
And the potcakes?
Bill Clinton's election-winning campaign jibe - «It's the economy, stupid!» - cut through the political posturing and took everyone, both his opponents and the public, to the real election story.
Phillips, fresh from the latest meeting of the House of Assembly, offered journalists a similar insight. As he climbed into his taxi after a day of debating, his driver had one question: «What's it mean for my potcakes?».
The House had come up with new rules governing dog ownership to address the problem of dangerous breeds and mongrel strays.
The potcake, which takes its name from the burnt rice at the bottom of the pan that islanders traditionally fed to their dogs, is a mongrel breed which many people keep in and around their back yards.
Moral of the story? Parliamentary reporting is not so much about institutional procedure, abstract notions or even political rhetoric. At the end of the day, it's all about… your audience and how what happens in parliament is likely to affect them!
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