Mehr Transparenz wagen!

Aufsatz in der Zeitschrift für Parlamentsfragen

05.04.2023

Zeitschrift für Parlamentsfragen (04/2022)

915–922

Mehr Transparenz in Untersuchungsausschüssen wagen! Ein Plädoyer aus der Praxis Fabio De Masi

DOI

ABSTRACT 

Inquiry committees are the opposition’s sharpest sword in the German Bundestag . In con- trast to the European Parliament, the U .S . Congress, and other international examples, however, TV or Internet transmissions of witness hearings are not common in practice . In the German Bundestag, a double barrier to transmission exists and it consists of the con- cerned person’s consent as well as that of a two-thirds majority in the committee . The author argues in favor of facilitating TV or Internet transmissions of investigative commit- tees by elevating it to an opposition’s minority right while maintaining the requirement of witnesses’ consent to transmissions . That way witnesses could also protect themselves from media distorting their statements, while at the same time fact-finding by a critical public would be supported, and even help to avoid theatrical staging of investigative committees .