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Regional daily films council meeting after law change

A regional daily has taken advantage of a new right to film council meetings introduced this month.

As previously reported on HTFP, ministers recently signed into law new rights allowing journalists to broadcast and tweet from council meetings as well as report in print.

Among the first to take advantage of the change was the Hartlepool Mail, which published a video report of a meeting at which councillors backed a £19m investment in local schools.

The video can be seen on the paper’s website here.

A spokesman for the Mail’s publisher Johnston Press said its titles in the North East have embraced the opportunity to extend council coverage for readers by tweeting and videoing meetings.

The Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014, introduced by local government secretary Eric Pickles, extends the 1960 right of journalists to cover council meetings to digital and broadcast platforms.

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  • August 14, 2014 at 10:12 am
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    It looks like a re-run of Twister with the clichéd flying trucks, disintegrating buildings and quite likely, the main characters chasing ‘something’ in their lives as well as the tornados.

    And I can’t see how the scene at the town meeting, probably discussing the approaching tornados, fitted in. Someone should sack the sound editor as the actress, playing the Mayor (?) was kinda mumbling.

    Is it in 3D, the trailer didn’t make that clear, and is H’Angus the Monkey in it? I suppose if the weather is bad you could take the kids and while away a few hours of the holidays.

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  • August 14, 2014 at 11:40 am
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    i always wonder who watches these videos. I am often the only non-council worker at meetings and I can’t imagine who wants to sit down and watch one that was filmed on a phone

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  • August 14, 2014 at 12:41 pm
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    Someone buy the bloke in the yellow tie a desk fan!

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