Central European Papers 2017, 5(2):11-26 | DOI: 10.25142/cep.2017.008

Journalists in Parliaments. Three cases concerning the accessibility of legislatures in Central Europe

Péter SMUK
Department of Constitutional Law and Political Sciences, Deák Ferenc Faculty of Law and Political Sciences, Széchenyi István University

In modern legislatures, the public nature of political debates has been achieved as a constitutional principle. Constitutions and parliamentary standing orders provide with possibilities for journalists and media to access to sittings of the legislatures in order to offer the public the information on issues debated in parliament. Against this normative background, this paper introduces three cases (from Macedonia, Poland and Hungary) where journalists’ work have been limited in legislatures for several reasons. The paper considers also the competing values of freedom of information, freedom of expression visa-vis the dignity and undisturbed functioning of parliaments.

Keywords: constitution, journalist, legislatures, parliament, Hungary, Macedonia, Poland

Published: September 18, 2018  Show citation

ACS AIP APA ASA Harvard Chicago Chicago Notes IEEE ISO690 MLA NLM Turabian Vancouver
SMUK P. Journalists in Parliaments. Three cases concerning the accessibility of legislatures in Central Europe. Central European Papers. 2017;5(2):11-26. doi: 10.25142/cep.2017.008.
Download citation

References

  1. 9/2013. számú házelnöki rendelkezés az Országház és az Országgyűlés Irodaháza, valamint az Országgyűlés Hivatalának elhelyezésére szolgáló épületek területére történő belépés és az ott-tartózkodás, valamint az Országgyűlési Őrség e feladatkörével összefüggő tevékenysége részletes szabályairól, online: http://www.parlament.hu/documents/10181/11066/2013r09.pdf/1940811a-f4bd-44b4-95fc-871924b07a28.
  2. Act XXXVI of 2012 on the National Assembly, online: http://www.parlament.hu/documents/125505/138409/Act+XXXVI+of+2012+on+the+National+Assembly/b53726b7-12a8-4d93-acef-140feef44395.
  3. ANNEX: RULE OF LAW AND HUMAN RIGHTS CONCERNS IN POLAND, online: https://www.fidh.org/IMG/pdf/annex_to_joint_ngo_letter_to_the_european_commission_on_poland-16_feb_2017.pdf.
  4. Association of European Journalists - In Poland, media freedom fears persist as new plans restricting journalists' access to parliament to be unveiled in January, online: http://www.aej.org/page.asp?p_id=569.
  5. A sajtótudósítás rendje - Országgyűlés, online: http://www.parlament.hu/a-sajtotudositas-rendje.
  6. BEYME, Klaus von: Die parlamentarische Demokratie. Entstehung und Funktionweise 1789-1999, Wiesbaden 1999.
  7. Case of Selmani and Others v. the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Par. [5]-[15], [16]-[23], [67], online: http://hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng#{"itemid":["001-170839"]}.
  8. HABERMAS, Jürgen: The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere. An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society, Cambridge - Massachusetts 1991.
  9. Helsińska Fundacja Praw Człowieka - HFHR on still unclear rules for media in Parliament, online: http://www.hfhr.pl/en/hfhr-on-still-unclear-rules-for-media-in-parliament/.
  10. Itthon: Kitiltották a hvg.hu munkatársát a Parlamentből, online: http://hvg.hu/itthon/20160426_Kitiltottak_a_hvghu_munkatarsat_a_Parlamentbol.
  11. KEANE, John: Media and Democracy, Budapest 1999.
  12. Kuchciński zamkn±ł Sejm dla obywateli. Nie wejd± na najbliższe posiedzenie, online: https://oko.press/kuchcinski-zamknal-sejm-obywateli-wejda-najblizsze-dla-posiedzenie/.
  13. MAGIERA, Siegfried: Art. 42 [Öffentlichkeit, Mehrheitsprinzip, Berichterstattung], in: Grundgesetz Kommentar, SACHS, Michael, München 2011, 1253-1258.
  14. MARKECHOVA, Jana: Act on Slovak Radio and Television, online: http://merlin.obs.coe.int/iris/2011/2/article39.en.html.
  15. MCKAY, William - JOHNSON, Charles W.: Parliament and Congress: Representation and Scrutiny in the Twenty-First Century, Oxford 2012.
  16. Nowe Centrum Medialne, online: http://www.sejm.gov.pl/media8.nsf/files/EPIAAGMN5J/%24File/Informacja%20na%20temat%20zmian%20w%20organizacji%20pracy%20medi%C3%B3w%20w%20Parlamencie.pdf.
  17. Opinia Helsińskiej Fundacji Praw Człowieka w sprawie założeń zmiany organizacji pracy mediów w Sejmie, online: http://www.hfhr.pl/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Opinia_HFPC_11012017.pdf.
  18. Polish protesters block parliament over press freedom - BBC News, online: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-38347674.
  19. POLYÁK, Gábor: Párhuzamos valóságok. Az Alkotmánybíróság nyilvánosság- és médiaképe társadalomtudományi eredmények tükrében [Parallel realities. The publicity and media through the eyes of the Constitutional Court, in the context of the achievements of social sciences], in: Fundamentum, 16, 2012, 4, 24.
  20. Pontosan ennyi lehetőség van politikusokat kérdezni anélkül, hogy Kövér László kitiltana, online: https://444.hu/2016/04/26/pontosan-ennyi-lehetoseg-van-politikusokat-kerdezni-hogy-kover-laszlo-ne-tiltson-ki.
  21. SCOTT, Paul: (Political) Constitutions and (Political) Constitutionalism, in: German Law Journal, 12, 2013, 2164.
  22. SMUK, Péter: Ellenzéki jogok a parlamenti jogban [Rights of the opposition in parliamentary law], Budapest 2008.
  23. SMUK, Péter: A politikai diskurzusok alkotmányjogi szerkezete [The structure of political discourses from the perspective of constitutional law], Budapest 2014.
  24. Statement by the Marshal of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland on the course of the 33rd sitting of the Sejm on 16 December 2016, online: http://www.sejm.gov.pl/sejm8.nsf/komunikat.xsp?documentId=4F557DA5DFD6BCA3C1258092002B3A9C.
  25. SZCZERBIAK, Aleks: How will Poland's parliamentary crisis develop? - The Polish Politics Blog, online: https://polishpoliticsblog.wordpress.com/2017/01/03/how-will-polands-parliamentary-crisis-develop/.
  26. TAMÁS, Fábián: Fidesz: Az újságírók magatartása méltatlan az állampolgárokkal szemben [Fidesz: Journalists' behaviour is unworthy to citizens], online: https://index.hu/belfold/2016/04/27/partok_es_a_parlamenti_sajtoszabadsag/.
  27. The Fundamental Law of Hungary, online: http://www.parlament.hu/documents/125505/138409/Fundamental+law/73811993-c377-428d-9808-ee03d6fb8178.
  28. The Gallery Today - The Parliamentary Press Gallery, online: https://www.pressgallery.org.uk/the-gallery-today/.
  29. The Polish Government's response to the concerns expressed in relation to the proposal of changes to the rules governing journalists' work in the Sejm and Senat, online: https://rm.coe.int/16806d8de4.
  30. ZARZˇDZENIE NR 1 MARSZAŁKA SEJMU z dnia 9 stycznia 2008 r. w sprawie wstępu do budynków pozostaj±cych w zarz±dzie Kancelarii Sejmu oraz wstępu i wjazdu na tereny pozostaj±ce w zarz±dzie Kancelarii Sejmu, online: http://www.sejm.gov.pl/kancelaria/zarz1_2008.pdf.

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original publication is properly cited. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.