Scrutiny president vows to fight to keep livestreaming

Education, Sport & Culture was due to face a Scrutiny panel yesterday, but it was postponed late on Tuesday.

‘On Monday, advice was received from the internal data protection function of the States relating to the livestreaming of Scrutiny public hearings, stating that a number of colleagues, across various committees of the States, had raised concerns about Scrutiny streaming public hearings on YouTube,’ said Deputy Burford.

‘We were advised that this was due to data protection considerations around the processing of personal data which, on the basis of the advice received, can include simply recording or streaming an event.’

Scrutiny hopes to address the concerns over the next few days and resume public hearings quickly. If this proves impossible, it will ask the States to intervene.

‘For years Scrutiny has published full transcripts of its hearings online, available to anyone anywhere in the world to read. The media attend our events and are free to film during them or to record them,’ said Deputy Burford.

‘If the results of the discussions and the information gathered indicate that there is an unacceptable risk with continuing to livestream, then I will propose to my committee that we bring a short policy letter to the States to propose putting a legal right in place for Scrutiny to livestream public hearings.

‘I remain fully committed to openness and transparency and making our work as easily accessible to the public as possible.’

Around 48 hours before its hearing with ESC, Scrutiny was advised either to stop streaming hearings on YouTube and restrict the broadcasts to a Guernsey audience rather than a global one, or put a video of the hearing on the States website and require viewers to log in to watch it.

Scrutiny was advised that broadcasting its public hearings outside Guernsey could be disproportionate under data protection regulations and could embarrass or humiliate a person defined as a data subject who struggled under questioning.

‘Scrutiny does not in any way seek to embarrass or humiliate the witnesses at our hearings,’ said Deputy Burford.

‘We ask questions in order to scrutinise and understand the work of States committees to enhance public understanding of what the States is doing and how it is spending taxpayers’ money.

‘I took the decision to postpone the hearing because I was not prepared to agree with either of the options proposed. The first one was unacceptable and the second one was impractical.’

Scrutiny is meeting the Law Officers, States data protection staff, and the Office of the Data Protection Authority.

It has already made clear that the postponement of this week’s hearing was not linked to ESC, but ESC did not answer questions from the Guernsey Press yesterday.

Questions on livestreams of hearings

Deputy Burford faced questions in the States last year about her committee livestreaming public hearings.

Deputies David Mahoney and Andrew Taylor asked how much live-streaming cost. Deputy Sam Haskins asked whether she was aware that a recent livestreamed hearing had been viewed 198 times. And Deputy Lindsay de Sausmarez asked how many people normally attended a Scrutiny hearing to understand the additional audience of a livestreamed event.