Friday, 5th September 2008

European Parliament to launch web TV

Ivan Camilleri, Brussels

The European Parliament will be launching an innovative web-TV channel in two weeks' time.

EuroparlTV, a totally web-based channel, will go online for the first time on September 17 and viewers will be able to follow it in all the 23 official EU languages including Maltese. A Belgian-based company responsible for the project has even recruited two full-time Maltese employees in Brussels who will be responsible for translating and dubbing features and news items into Maltese.

The channel is expected to carry live coverage of a whole range of events in Parliament, including plenary sessions, committee meetings, workshops and public hearings.

It will also include other material, such as profiles of MEPs, details on how the Parliament works and features specifically aimed at young people.

The European Parliament is giving a lot of importance to this project particularly as it wants to increase its visibility in view of the next European parliamentary election scheduled for next June.

This channel was first approved by MEPs in 2006 and is estimated to cost the European Parliament €9 million during its first year of operation.

Previous article • NGOs Commissioner
Next article • Judicial letter over mid-air collision

Article © Allied Newspapers Ltd., printed on Saturday, November 21, 2009. This article is for personal use only, and should not be distributed.

Comments

Dr. John Zammit (on 5/9/08)

Welcome, at last, I remember talking about it during a seminar by the Thomas Fenech Foundation for Education in Journalism by Mr. Sheckleton, last year at the Malta Hilton. I asked about if the European Parliament is going to have a TV station on the web. I know because they have a big press centre there and they are equipped with tv cameras etc. In fact one already can see broadcasts direct from the web of the parliamentary sessions. We need to inform the Maltese for the coming European Parliament elections that in the European Parliament there are seven different political groups not two like in the Maltese Parliament and they need to vote to all the groups to have more power/support for Malta from the different groups, like the Liberals and Greens. - Dr. John Zammit - Leader, Alleanza Liberal-Demokratika Malta. www.malta-liberals.org and www.john-zammit.eu

Hamish Dempster (on 5/9/08)

Dont you think we have had enough of poitics on the daily media informing us of what goes on in the eu. Now we have to also withstand and listend to more through the web. Enough is enough.

Pierre Agius (on 5/9/08)

I am sure that this will not translate into less travelleing. On the contrary this will be an added expense. Wonder how much this project will cost. This is just a public relations scoop. Totally not worth it though. Complete waste of money. How about helping us with illegal migrants instead!

B Borg (on 5/9/08)

So will this spell the end of the wasteful monthly to-and-fro between Brussels and Strasbourg?

The money saved can be used for more worthy causes and it can help improve the credibility of the EU´s green credentials.