tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-492174345240444269.post2465621222918871839..comments2023-09-09T14:46:37.354+02:00Comments on Julien Frisch: Should bloggers get access badges for the EU institutions?Julien Frischhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18167141111642456560noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-492174345240444269.post-44202530731872588452010-06-30T17:36:46.708+02:002010-06-30T17:36:46.708+02:00Hello,
You may find this article interesting, ...Hello, <br />You may find this article interesting, 'Culture MEPs call on EU for more European online conversation', http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/public/story_page/039-76909-176-06-26-906-20100625STO76792-2010-25-06-2010/default_en.htm<br /><br />It's funny. It talks for three or four paragraphs about how the EU wants to engage more directly with Europeans. Then the final sentences note that amendments to allow citizens to directly elect anything more than an MEP were voted down. <br /><br />The EU, like many institutions as you point out, wants direct engagement but not direct participation from participants that may not understand/misinterpret the institution. They want more control over the spin of a story, which is more easily done if you understand the media that does the spinning. Till the EU knows how social media works, they will be less likely to engage because they are uncertain how best to engage and represent themselves. Institutions, governments and politics rightly fear the media, and they tend to do their research before they allow new media to participate.Linda Margarethttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00028859002817594850noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-492174345240444269.post-11479364977744406412010-06-29T11:39:11.612+02:002010-06-29T11:39:11.612+02:00Institutions, including those at European level, s...Institutions, including those at European level, should be accountable for their actions at all time. The default should NOT be that individuals have to prove that they have a right to be here, it should be that institutions have to prove someone does not have a right to be there.<br /><br />Bloggers are subjected to the same laws, press laws are applied to them as much as to newspaper journalists. Maybe we should just make our own bloggers id, similar to national press ids, so that there is something that the procedures can cling to?<br /><br />"Ah look he has got a bloggers id, good enough!"<br /><br />After all, it's the same with national press ids. Nobody looks into the criteria used for these being handed out, and let me assure you, they are not as sincere, reliable and honourable as asserted!<br /><br /><a href="http://www.dieweltistscheisse.de/2006/07/05/bloggausweis-vs-presseausweis/" rel="nofollow">Here are some first attempts at a blog id from 2006.</a>Andreashttp://www.nonformality.orgnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-492174345240444269.post-4429522412860834332010-06-29T00:12:57.938+02:002010-06-29T00:12:57.938+02:00Thanks a lot already for clarifying some of the is...Thanks a lot already for clarifying some of the issues - it's important to make it most transparent of what the criteria are to get access.<br /><br />And yes, naturally MEPs, assistants, interns and technical and other staff have access, but they are part of the institution's functioning, not outsiders. Journalists & lobbyists are definitely just second-order actors regarding the functioning of the institutions (which doesn't say they are unimportant).<br /><br />The problem is that Parliament is just one example of an EU institution (your question concerned "EU institutions" in general, not just the parliament), and it is no surprise that as a body directly responsible to the citizens it is more open than the Council or the Commission. And not to talk about the Court (there are a number of brilliant legal bloggers) or the different agencies (many of them outside Brussels).<br /><br />To report, for example, from the European Council, you need to have a national press card, and only if such a thing doesn't exist in your country you may come with a special letter from an editor in chief. So for a blogger even to get a one-day or two-day access is impossible in this case, which I thought would apply also for the Parliament (this is why I assumed you wouldn't allow totally independent journalists).<br /><br />But even for the Parliament it is not totally obvious how to get access - applying for a public hearing is one thing (and this is rather just known to Brussels experts and not widely communicated), but already applying to participate in a seminar and clarifying whether one can report about everything that is said is not so obvious.<br /><br />And last week I've been writing to the official email of a committee to ask whether I could participate as a scientific observer (not as a blogger) in the next meeting and six days later there is still no response... As somebody who knows one or two people around the EP I'd finally find the right person to address my request to, but what about people who do not have the contacts?<br /><br />What my post actually wanted to imply is that having thought about the issue, it seems very difficult to me to come up with any criteria for permanent access badges for bloggers beyond the category of "quasi-journalists" (which is only because professional journalism is already a privileged category for permanent badges). <br /><br />Anything else will create a new hierarchy, a small elite of people who fit into some criteria that can only be very arbitrary and that will be prohibitive to newcomers - and maybe newcomers would be the ones who could have a fresh view on EU politics, who would like to go into specific issues that haven't been covered elsewhere yet.<br /><br />One of the great things of the blogosphere compared to classical journalism is that it is (in principle) much more open for new people, that it allows creative newcomers to get quite an audience in a short time and to develop an expertise (including the ability to report) and to become relevant voices among a group of readers.<br /><br />What I wanted to say is that maybe you don't need special permanent badges for (EU) bloggers to the European Parliament if you make clear that somebody who tries to make a living from writing an EU blog can still be registered in the category of a freelance journalist and that other bloggers can easily register for single events.<br /><br />But maybe this only applies to the Parliament, while there are no similar categories of events within the Council or the Commission, the agencies or the Economic and Social Committee or the Committee of the Regions, institutions that prefer to only (if at all) let official lobbyists and accredited journalists into the halls.Julien Frischhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18167141111642456560noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-492174345240444269.post-43182527732489662922010-06-28T23:24:47.798+02:002010-06-28T23:24:47.798+02:00Hi Julien, your comments (“brainstorming”) contain...Hi Julien, your comments (“brainstorming”) contain much to which I want to react. <br /><br />Though a lot of your musings are interesting, not all of them have a direct bearing on my original question. But you do rephrase that question and even partially answer it when you say: …”allowing permanent access to people who can prove (through previous work, current work, income statistics, etc.) that they pursue a journalistic activity.” These are the sort of criteria we use to give a permanent access badge to freelance journalists – proof of work (work that deals mainly with EU affairs) and of payment for that work in such a manner that it’s clear that journalism is the applicant’s main professional activity. I have the impression, however, that for many bloggers such as yourself it would be difficult to meet such criteria. <br /><br />Which brings me to the reason why permanent accreditations are given out. Your assertion that only journalists and lobbyists have a permanent accreditation is in fact incorrect: MEPs, civil servant staff, technical staff from outside companies – they all have a permanent accreditation. The reason is that they need to work in the Parliament on a regular basis.<br /><br />On the issue of giving access to all citizens, you point out yourself that at the European Parliament “any citizen can register and participate quite easily”. I am therefore somewhat taken aback by your assertions that “old institutions (…) hate to deal with real individuals”. As I said above, freelance journalists (not belonging to an organization) get a permanent access badge while other individuals can have individual access. Also, journalists who do not work regularly in Brussels and cover the Parliament regularly, can come in individually and on an incidental basis if they can show a national press ID.<br /><br />So, my question remains what should the criteria be that would make it possible to give EU-bloggers a permanent accreditation. <br /><br />MarjoryMarjorynoreply@blogger.com