Page 277 - Law and the Media

16 Parliamentary Proceedings
and Elections

Tom Cassels and Rebecca Handler

16.1 Introduction

Members of Parliament and the proceedings of Parliament are cloaked with certain
traditional rights and privileges that are aimed at safeguarding the freedom and independence
of the individuals involved and the dignity of the institution. Foremost among these
privileges are:

Complete freedom of speech or ‘absolute privilege’, which protects debates and
official proceedings in the House of Commons and the House of Lords
The power of each House to regulate its own procedures, including the power to
punish members and outsiders for breach of privilege known as ‘contempt of
Parliament’.

The freedom of members of Parliament to speak on any matter without the fear of legal
consequence extends to reports of Parliamentary proceedings, and is protected by Article 9
of the Bill of Rights 1688:

The freedom of speech and debates or proceedings in Parliament ought not to be
impeached or questioned in any court or place out of Parliament.

Fair and accurate reports of Parliamentary proceedings and extracts from Parliamentary
papers reported in the broadcast media or in newspapers are subject to ‘qualified privilege’.
This means that the motives behind the publication can be examined. Chapter 1 deals with
defamation and the public policy defences of absolute privilege and qualified privilege.

Political elections have not always been the largely civilized affairs they are today.
Widespread corruption and malpractice used to be regular features of Parliamentary
elections. To stamp out such tendencies, detailed laws were introduced to regulate and
control every aspect of electioneering. Election campaigns are now heavily regulated to
prevent corruption and malpractice. While most of the regulation is aimed at controlling the
actions of direct participants in elections, such as voters, candidates and organizers, the
power of the media to influence the electoral process is acknowledged by regulation under
the Representation of the People Act 1983 in the areas of false statements about candidates
and election expenses.