TV News cameras suspended from Qld Parliament

TV news cameras have been suspended from the Queensland Parliament, accused of spying on MPs while they worked on private matters.

The Courier Mail reports networks have been accused of an invasion of privacy by “peeping” on members private notes and documents, an iPad and a personal computer. Cameras zoomed in on notes and private papers of the Opposition leader Annastacia Palaszczuk and breached the privacy guidelines by showing the iPad screen and documents of Curtis Pitt, manager of Opposition business, and the laptop of Jo-Ann Miller, the Opposition Whip.

The vision was recorded on a pool basis to be shared by all the news networks, but published material contained the TEN Network logo.

Speaker Fiona Simpson said, “Not only is the behaviour of network cameras a direct breach of the long-standing media access conditions, but legal advice I have recently received is that this incident also risks placing the network cameras in breach of parliamentary privilege and possibly in contempt of Parliament.”

The networks have been given seven days to show cause why they should be re-admitted.