The State Commissioners Authority of the Administrative Court recommended upholding the decision of parliamentary speaker Ali Abdul Aal, which included banning live broadcasting of parliament sessions, local media reported.
The authority recommended rejecting a filed lawsuit that called for the cancelation of the ban of live television broadcasting of the sessions, as there was a lawsuit filed in 2015 to the Administrative Court demanding the broadcasting of parliamentary sessions.
This implies that the authority accepts publishing parliament news in any media outlets but not live sessions.
In a report released by the authority, it stated that the Egyptian Constitution and internal regulations chart of the parliament confirms that the parliament session should be public.
However, it urged that all the taken procedures and decisions in the parliament are published in daily newspapers and displayed in various media, supporting the idea of public hearings, adding this means that publicity should be limited to live sessions.
In January 2016, following the first two sessions of the newly elected parliament, parliament’s Secretary-General Ahmed Saad El-Din decided to ban live television broadcasting of the sessions.
The ban will be enforced until parliament has finished reviewing all presidential decrees and governmental regulations that have been issued since 3 July 2013.
The constitution highlights that all the citizens have the right to know what is happening during legislative and administrative sessions while they are happening, and these statements reveal that the parliament’s administration is not aware of the constitutional provisions, Hassan Al-Azhary, a lawyer of the Association of Freedom of Thought and Expression (AFTE) that filed a lawsuit against the ban, previously told Daily News Egypt.
