THE ONLINE CITIZEN CHALLENGES MEDIACORP’S COPYRIGHT OVER PARLIAMENTARY VIDEOS

Terry Xu, Chief Editor at The Online Citizen, posted a Facebook post decrying the copyright control that MediaCorp has over parliamentary videos, which he contends should be made public domain for the sake of political openness and transparency.

 

Read his post here.

 

"Was banned from Facebook for three days because MediaCorp filed a copyright claim on a video of Parliament sitting on TOC's fanpage and just had the ban lifted. So apologies for those whom I didn't reply to these few days.

 

On Wednesday 2 Aug, Ms Diane Leow from Channel News Asia/MediaCorp filed a copyright claim for a video of the parliament sitting against The Online Citizen's Facebook page and successfully obtained a take down.

 

Have written to Parliament to ask why MediaCorp is being given exclusive rights to copyright the videos that ought to be public information. Ministers at Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) such as Yaacob Ibrahim and Chee Hong Tat 徐芳达 are being CC in the emails that I have sent so far.

 

In the emails that have been sent, I asked:

 

Why is MediaCorp as a private entity given right to copyright video of public hearing of the Parliament sitting?

Although the cameras belong to MediaCorp and the recording is done by MediaCorp, but the fact is, Parliament does not allow any other media outlets to record the proceedings of the Parliament.

Does it mean if any media outlet apply to bring their camera to record the proceedings, Parliament will approve and then be granted copyright?

If only MediaCorp is given the right to film the proceedings, why is it given the right to copyright the videos?

Why is there such an unconventional arrangement with MediaCorp, given that the Parliament has well enough resources to film the proceedings for public consumption. According to the annual budget, the annual expenditure for just three political appointee for Parliament is well-over 21 million.

Also why is that the video recordings are taken off public domain after six months? Is there any rationale behind this policy? Is there any Parliament in other countries that has such practices?

 

So far there is no reply from Parliament in regards to the points that are being raised and so I will continue to write on a daily basis (working days) to seek their clarification.

 

For every twenty emails, I will blast to all the MPs and every fifty emails, I will send to all the international watchdog on government transparency including United Nations. Will continue till they give a reply that can adequately address to the concerns made."