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STATES OF JERSEY
ELECTED MEMBERS' ACCESS TO INFORMATION: MEDIA RELEASES (P.22/2011) – COMMENTS
Presented to the States on 10th March 2011 by the Council of Ministers
STATES GREFFE
2011 Price code: A P.22 Com.
COMMENTS
In principle, the Council of Ministers agrees that news releases should be sent to States Members before they are sent to the media.
However, communications within the States of Jersey are not centralised and only news releases and statements issued by the Chief Minister's Department and Treasury and Resources Department are released through the Communications Unit. The current policy is to send news releases to States Members before the media. The Chief Minister can only recommend that other departments follow the same policy, therefore implementing and enforcing this proposition would present problems.
In addition, issuing all news releases to States Members an hour before the media is also impractical. The media work to very tight deadlines and coverage would be hampered if we were no longer able to use embargoes for complex documents/ policies. This would mean we would no longer be able to release information, like the budget, to the media in advance, in order to give them sufficient time to understand the key issues before broadcasting/publishing.
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P.22/2011 Com.