ABU DHABI // The FNC is to launch its own television programme and magazine.
During a closed session yesterday, members approved a set of changes to the council’s media strategy to raise its public profile and intends to discuss the plan with various television stations.
Members also agreed that a programme will be made for Sharjah Radio.
Ali Jassim (UAQ) said members had already contributed to the station. He has featured in three programmes since his appointment to the council in 1993.
The magazine will be called Al Watani Al Ittahadi (Federal National) and will be launched "very soon", said an FNC source.
Former members and political analysts have previously called for FNC meetings to be shown live, to help engage the public and hold members accountable.
“Each session is about six to seven hours, you cannot write everything on one page,” the then Deputy Speaker of the FNC, Ahmed Shabeeb Al Dhaheri, said in 2011. “Maybe live streaming would be better.”
He accepted that members might find cameras distracting.
“Today we set the goals of the programme, amended the plan,” Mr Jassim said. “People must know about the council, we need people to have political awareness. Like the Human Rights committee, it will have to spread a culture of human rights.”
He said greater coverage would help people get to know their representatives, as well as the various committees and their work.
