How many countries broadcast their parliamentary/assembly sessions live?

Singapore prides itself as a first-world country with a first-world government. However, when it comes to first world government practices, it seems to fare lesser than those perceived to be of third-world.

To show just how out of place Singapore is in comparison with the rest of the world, we list down the governments that provide live-streaming of its sessions to the public.

Below is a list of countries that have made live parliament sessions available to the citizens via television, radio and web-streaming. (Some unlisted countries might have TV stations that broadcast its sessions but unable to verify because their websites are down.)

1. Canada
2. United States of America
3. Mexico
4. Argentina
5. Brazil
6. Guatemala
7. Dominican Republic
8. Venezuela
9. Colombia
10. Paraguay
11. Ecuador (audio)
12. Guyana
13. Honduras (TV)
14. Bolivia (audio)
15. Chile
16. Costa Rica
17. Barbados
18. Republic of Trinidad and Tobago
19. United Kingdom
20. Ireland
21. France
22. Italy
23. Malta
24. Finland
25. Germany
26. Belgium
27. Hungary
28. Austria
29. Greece
30. Sweden
31. Switzerland
32. Iceland
33. Liechtenstein 
34. Netherlands
35. Denmark
36. Norway
37. Lithuania
38. Luxembourg
39. Spain
40. Andorra
41. Portugal
42. Romania
43. Bulgaria
44. Albania
45. Montenegro
46. Macedonia
47. Poland
48. Estonia
49. Latvia
50. Croatia 
51. Russia
52. Slovenia
53. Kyrgyz Republic (audio)
54. Slovakia 
55. Czech Republic
56. Ukraine
57. Georgia
58. Armenia
59. Serbia
60. Turkey
61. Moldova
62. Kazakhstan
63. Jordon
64. Israel
65. Bahrain
66. South Africa
67. Bermuda
68. Gambia
69. Tunisia
70. Nigeria
71. Ghana
72. Rwanda (audio)
73. Cabo Verde
74. Tonga
75. India
76. Bangladesh 
77. Pakistan
78. Sri Lanka
79. Nepal
80. Bhutan (TV)
81. China
82. Mongolia
83. Japan
84. South Korea
85. Malaysia
86. Indonesia
87. Thailand
88. Philipines
89. Taiwan
90. Hong Kong
91. New Zealand
92. Australia
93. Republic of Vanuatu
94. Fiji

Given the fact that so many countries made live parliamentary sessions accessible, what is stopping Singapore from doing so?

In defence of its decision not to stream its parliamentary sessions live, Senior Minister of State for Ministry of Communications and Information, Chee Hong Tat said that there is no need for live streaming because there is low demand by the population and that there are less than 10% of the population who watches the live broadcast of the Budget announcement each year.

Taking an example from the list of countries, South Africa's population is close to 56 million individuals but its live-stream parliamentary videos on its official Youtube channel are watched less than 2,000 times by viewers but yet it continues to make the service available.  So even if we were to just simply look at South Africa, Mr Chee's defence seems as weak as straw.

If you are interested in signing a petition to call for live streaming in Singapore's parliament, visit this link.

This entry was posted in Parliament.

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